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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of India’s Problem Krishna or Christ by John
+P. Jones
+
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no
+restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under
+the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or
+online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license
+
+
+
+Title: India’s Problem Krishna or Christ
+
+Author: John P. Jones
+
+Release Date: November 15, 2008 [Ebook #27270]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INDIA’S PROBLEM KRISHNA OR CHRIST***
+
+
+
+
+
+                             India’s Problem
+
+                            Krishna or Christ
+
+                                    By
+
+                           John P. Jones, D.D.
+
+                    of Southern India, A. B. C. F. M.
+
+                        New York, Chicago, Toronto
+
+                        Fleming H. Revell Company
+
+                                   1903
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+Dedication.
+Preface.
+Chapter I. The Land And The People.
+   1. The Physical Features of That Land.
+   2. The People.
+   3. Economic Conditions.
+   4. Social Life.
+      (_a_) The Family.
+      (_b_) Society.
+   5. The Educational System.
+   6. The Political Situation.
+   7. The Government of India.
+   8. The Mission of Great Britain in India.
+Chapter II. The Religions Of India.
+   (_a_) Judaism.
+   (_b_) Mohammedanism.
+   (_c_) Parseeism.
+   (_d_) Buddhism.
+   (_e_) Jainism.
+   (_f_) Sikhism.
+   (_g_) Hinduism.
+      (_a_) Incarnation.
+      (_b_) Vicarious Atonement.
+      (_c_) Spirituality.
+      (_d_) Eschatology.
+      (_e_) The Doctrine of Faith.
+Chapter III. Hinduism And Christianity Contrasted.
+   1. In their Initial Conceptions.
+   2. Their Ultimate Aim or Goal.
+   3. The Agency and Means Recognized and Appealed to by those Faiths
+   Respectively.
+   4. The Processes of These Two Religions.
+   5. The Ideals of the Two Faiths.
+   6. The Credentials of the Two Faiths.
+   7. Other Distinguishing Traits.
+   Conclusion.
+Chapter IV. The Products Of The Two Faiths In India. The Hindu And The
+Native Christian—A Study.
+   1. And First, The Hindu.
+   2. Let us Now Study The Native Christian.
+Chapter V. The Women Of India.
+Chapter VI. The History Of Christian Effort In India.
+Chapter VII. The Missionary.
+   1. Physical Fitness.
+   2. His Methods of Life.
+   3. The Intellectual Ability and Educational Training of the Missionary.
+   4. Spiritual Qualifications.
+   5. The Missionary’s Attitude Towards the Non-Christian World.
+   6. The Relationship Which the Missionary Sustains to the Missionary
+   Society and the Churches Which Support Him.
+   7. The Missionary and the Mission To Which He Belongs.
+   8. The Relation of the Missionary to the People Among Whom He Lives.
+Chapter VIII. Missionary Organization.
+   (_a_) The Evangelistic Department.
+   (_b_) Pastoral Work.
+   (_c_) The Educational Department.
+      Schools for Non-Christians.
+      Schools for Christian Children.
+      Training Institutions for Mission Agents.
+   (_d_) Literary Work.
+   (_e_) Medical Work.
+   (_f_) Work for Women.
+   (_g_) Work for the Young.
+   (_h_) Organizations for the Special Activities of the Native Christian
+   Community.
+Chapter IX. Present Day Missionary Problems.
+Chapter X. Missionary Results.
+Chapter XI. Missionary Results—(Continued)
+Index.
+Footnotes
+
+
+
+
+
+
+DEDICATION.
+
+
+_To_
+_ _
+_ My Wife_
+_ _
+_ Without whom the following pages_
+_ could not have been written._
+
+
+
+
+
+                [Illustration: A Typical Buddhist Priest.]
+
+“Yes, it shall come! E’en now my eyes behold,
+In distant view, the wish’d for age unfold,
+Lo, o’er the shadowy days that roll between,
+A wand’ring gleam foretells th’ ascending scene.
+Oh, doom’d victorious from thy wounds to rise,
+Dejected India, lift thy downcast eyes,
+And mark the hour, whose faithful steps for thee
+Through Time’s press’d ranks bring on the Jubilee!”
+
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+The following pages are, practically, the result of a course of lectures
+given, on the Hyde foundation, at the Andover Theological Seminary in the
+fall of 1902. Some of the chapters were also used in lectures, delivered
+during the year, at the Yale and Hartford Theological Seminaries and at
+the Western Reserve University. Small portions have appeared in Reviews
+and Magazines but have been much changed in the transfer. The cordial
+welcome accorded the lectures, including an expressed desire that they be
+published, has led to their appearance in this more permanent form.
+
+India should be better known to Europe and America. I trust that the
+following pages may help the student to understand the vast country and to
+realise the greatness of the problems connected with Christian work in the
+land; may they also stir within many a strong desire to present Christ to
+that great people, and inspire a hope in the ultimate and speedy triumph
+of our cause in the land of the Vedas.
+
+I gratefully express my indebtedness to the Rev. J. L. Barton, D. D., for
+his valuable suggestions and kindly sympathy, and also to the Rev. W. P.
+Elwood for his kind help in proofreading.
+
+John P. Jones.
+
+_Pasumalai,_
+_ So. India._
+
+
+
+
+
+                                Chapter I.
+
+
+THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE.
+
+
+No country in the Orient is of greater interest to the West today than is
+India. It is picturesque in its life, wonderful in its history, remarkable
+in its present conditions and fascinating in its promise for the future.
+
+It is a land most worthy of study both for what it has been, for what it
+is and for what it is to become; as the arena for the greatest conflict
+upon which our Faith and Civilization have ever entered; and for their
+most magnificent triumph in the world.
+
+Moreover, India is now peculiarly wedded to the Anglo-Saxon race. For good
+or for evil the destiny of that country, socially, politically,
+intellectually and religiously, is linked with that of the Anglo-Saxon;
+and we, as a part of the Anglo-Saxon race, cannot, even if we would, shake
+off our connection with, and responsibility for, it.
+
+
+
+
+1. The Physical Features of That Land.
+
+
+It is a very extensive land. More a continent than a country, it
+stretches, from east to west, a distance of 1,900 miles; and it extends
+the same distance from the Himalayas on the north to Cape Comorin on the
+south. It covers an area equal to one-half of that of the United States.
+
+It is physically divided into three portions. The first, on the north,
+includes the Himalaya Mountains, which separate it from the rest of Asia
+and which furnish an important element in the meteorological conditions of
+the country. Then from the base of this mountain range extend the plains
+of the great rivers which issue from the mountains themselves. Again, from
+the southern boundaries of these plains gradually rises a very extensive
+three-sided table-land reaching towards the coast on both eastern and
+western sides, and extending to Cape Comorin on the south. There may be
+added to this the narrow strips of coast-land on the east and west. In the
+land are found some of the greatest and most wonderful rivers in the
+world. The Ganges, which is the queen of Indian rivers, carries life and
+fertility to a population greater than that of the whole United States.
+After a course of 1,557 miles it empties, into the Bay of Bengal,
+1,800,000 cubic feet of water per second, which is half as much again as
+the water of the Mississippi, and nearly six times as much as that of the
+Nile at Cairo.
+
+It is a land wonderful in the variety of its climates. It is difficult to
+imagine greater contrasts than those existing between the various climates
+of India—from the eternal snows in the north to the fierce and constant
+heat of the tropics in the south; from the practically rainless expanse of
+the western plains of Sind to the 600 inches of rainfall which deluges the
+eastern mountain slopes. No land is more extensively cultivated and none
+gives more fruit in return for human labour than India. The Ganges, by the
+abundant silt which it carries, brings fertility and fruitfulness to its
+valleys. Even the plains of Sind, which are nearly rainless, are
+transformed into life by large irrigation schemes.
+
+Rice, wheat and millets are the three staples of the country. In the
+north, wheat furnishes sixty per cent. of the cultivated area. This total
+area under wheat cultivation in India is estimated to be equal to that of
+all the wheat-fields of the United States. One-fourth of the population of
+India lives on rice; and various kinds of millets represent fifty-two per
+cent. of the whole cultivation of the land. Though the methods of
+cultivation there are primitive and the implements used inadequate for
+best results, yet through the rich climatic conditions and the persistent
+efforts of the people the land normally yields an abundance of good things
+for the support of its inhabitants.
+
+
+
+
+2. The People.
+
+
+The people of India number, according to the census of 1901,
+291,236,000—about one-fifth of the inhabitants of the globe. This
+population represents more races than are found in the whole of Europe.
+Besides many small tribes, it has eleven nations, the least of which
+numbers 2,250,000 souls. Of these nations seven are of Aryan, and four of
+Dravidian, extraction; and they differ in physique, temperament and
+language. Between the sturdy Aryan on the north and the degraded primitive
+people on the plains of the south there is a great gulf. Between the
+clever and subtle Baboo of Bengal and the war-like Marahtta of the west,
+the bold, spirited Pathan in the north and the passive but enduring
+Dravidian in the south, there are many intermediate classes which furnish
+wonderful diversity of character and temperament. Among these people there
+is not, and cannot at present be, a sense of oneness. Until recently their
+whole civilization tended to emphasize their divergence, to broaden the
+breach between them and to cultivate a perpetual, mutual jealousy and
+hatred.
+
+The languages spoken by these people are, according to the census of 1891,
+seventy in number.(1) Of these the Sanskrit is the oldest, and may truly
+be called the mother tongue of the country. It is one of the most ancient
+languages in the world, with a history of more than 3,000 years. It is
+strong, pliant, expressive—a worthy vehicle of noble thought and religious
+aspiration. Though not spoken today by any tribe or people, it is not a
+dead language, for it is the religious tongue of India. The best thought,
+the deepest philosophy, the highest religious aspiration, the laws,
+customs and legends of the people are treasured in that tongue. All who
+would know the religious life and thought of India at its best and in its
+sources, should study Sanskrit. From it have sprung many of the languages
+of Modern India. In the northern and northwestern parts, the Aryan tongues
+find supremacy. Although these languages differ greatly among themselves,
+their source and vocabulary is mainly Sanskrit. Of all Indian languages,
+the one most widely spoken is the Hindi—88,000,000 people use it as their
+mother tongue. Forty-one millions speak Bengali, 18,000,000 speak Punjabi,
+19,000,000, Marathi, 11,000,000 speak Gujurathi.
+
+The Dravidian languages of South India are entirely separate from the
+Aryan group, their source and character being Turanian. These languages
+are Tamil, Telugu, Kanarese and Malayalam. Fifty-three million people
+speak these tongues alone.
+
+The inhabitants of India are an ancient people. When thirty centuries ago
+our ancestors were grovelling in the lowest depths of primitive savagery,
+our fellow-Aryans of India were enjoying a civilization of their own,
+which was, in its way, unique and distinguished. Their philosophy shows
+testimony to their ancient glory. It may truly be said that their chief
+glory is to be found more in ancient than in modern times. It is a people
+whose progress has, in some respects, been backward rather than forward,
+and whose boast is rightly of what they have been rather than of what they
+are.
+
+It is a conservative people. India is a land where custom is deified—the
+past is their glory. Today, we are living, they say, in the iron age (Kali
+Yuga), in which righteousness is all but lost. Hindu law has conserved the
+past—it exalts past observances above those of the present. Under such a
+system all innovations are out of place, individual ambitions are crushed.
+To resemble their ancestors is the _summum bonum_ of their life.
+
+The inhabitants of that land are a rural people. Unlike western countries,
+India has very few large towns. Nine-tenths of the whole population live
+in villages of less than 5,000, four-fifths live in villages of under
+1,000 inhabitants. The average village of India today contains 363
+inhabitants. During the last few years the tendency has been towards
+towns. But the large increase in the population is still to be seen in
+rural regions. In India two-thirds of the villages have less than 200
+inhabitants each, while 1,000 have from 5,000 to 10,000 inhabitants.
+Notwithstanding this fact, the population, in some parts of the country,
+is very dense. The whole of Bengal furnishes 360 persons to the square
+mile, and in the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh the total per square
+mile rises to 416.
+
+Owing to modern methods of sanitation, to peace and to general prosperity,
+the population has grown and is growing rapidly.(2) There is already one
+person to every two acres of land in the country; and under the British
+Government the prosperity of India is largely measured by the growth of
+the population; and this in turn seriously increases the difficulty of
+providing for the wants of the people. Indeed it has become one of the
+hardest problems which confronts the Indian government; and the difficulty
+is considerably enhanced by the religion of the country which demands that
+every man and woman marry and add to the population, regardless of any
+question as to health or even sanity. In India the first privilege and
+duty of man and woman is supposed to be the propagation of their kind.
+
+
+
+
+3. Economic Conditions.
+
+
+One of the most marked characteristics of India is its poverty. The
+people, as a whole, have always been extremely poor. There has been some
+wealth in the land; but it has not been evenly distributed. While a few
+nabobs have enjoyed immense treasures, the people, as a whole, have
+grovelled in the lowest depth of penury and want. There is better
+distribution of wealth today than ever before; and yet the poverty of the
+masses continues to be a serious feature of the land. “Its finance lies at
+the base of every difficulty connected with our Indian Empire,” is the
+remark of Sir Charles Dilke. And at the base of the finance difficulty
+lies the poverty of the people. It is a well known and lamentable fact
+that one-fifth of the population, say sixty millions, are insufficiently
+fed even in ordinary years of prosperity. They are the ever ready prey of
+the first drought, distress or famine that may happen. It is a not
+uncommon experience of the ryot (or farmer) to retire at night upon an
+empty stomach. The average income of the common labourer in India is
+between four and five rupees, or, say, $1.50 per month.
+
+Most of this evil which the people endure is self-imposed. They reveal a
+combination of blind improvidence, reckless expenditure and an
+unwillingness to shake off impoverishing customs. For instance, the debt
+incurring propensity of the native is akin to insanity. All the poor
+people with whom I am acquainted are bound hand and foot by this terrible
+mill-stone. And the interest paid upon loans is crushing. Two and three
+per cent. per month is an interest commonly received. It is rare that a
+poor farmer who gets into the clutches of the money lender regains his
+freedom. It usually leads to the loss of all property and means of
+support. Under the ancient Hindu law no money lender could recover
+interest upon a loan beyond the amount of the principal which he had
+advanced; under the present rule he can recover to any extent, sell the
+tenant’s crops and even take possession of the land under a judgment
+decree. It is one of those instances where justice in law is made to
+minister unrighteousness and cruelty in life. The people moreover are
+given to the most extravagant expenses at marriages and funerals. It is
+frequently the case that a man spends upon the marriage of his son or
+daughter, the latter especially, more than a whole year’s income. I know
+of many who are overwhelmed by debts incurred for the marriage of their
+children; and the saddest thing about it is that they have little option
+in this expense; for it is prescribed by caste custom.
+
+Add to this the rank growth of religious mendicancy, under the fostering
+care of religious teaching and superstition. There are five and one-half
+millions of such lazy, worthless fellows encumbering that land today. The
+mass of them are sleek in body and pestilential in morals. Whenever a man
+finds work too hard, he dons the yellow cloth of the religious mendicant
+and becomes an immediate success. But alas for the community! Hindu
+charity is proverbial, but it is blinder than love itself. Such a body of
+worthless consumers would tax even a wealthy land. To India it is a
+dreadful burden and drain.
+
+Add to this the insane passion for jewels which consumes both high and
+low. Millions of rupees’ worth of gold flows into the country annually,
+and most of it is melted and converted into personal adornments for women
+and children. For this purpose nearly one-half million goldsmiths,
+according to the last census, are employed and make a comfortable living
+at an annual expense of ten million dollars. This is a much larger force
+of workmen than that of all the blacksmiths in the land.
+
+The litigious spirit of the people is also phenomenal. It is doubtful if
+any other people on earth spend, relative to their means, more in legal
+processes than the Hindus. In view of all these facts, Sir W. W. Hunter’s
+statement that “The permanent remedies for the poverty of India rest with
+the people themselves” is eminently true. It is further emphasized by the
+remarks of Sir Madhava Rao, K. C. S. I., one of the very few statesmen
+whom India has produced among her own children: “The longer one lives,
+observes and thinks,” he says, “the more deeply does he feel there is no
+community on the face of the earth which suffers less from political evils
+and more from self-inflicted, self-accepted, or self-created, and
+therefore avoidable, evils than the Hindu community.”
+
+Famine is an oft-recurring and most perplexing evil with which India has
+always been familiar. In times past, it was the gaunt Avenger which
+decimated the people and which kept down the population within the range
+of tolerable existence. The god of dirt and insanitation carried away the
+unneeded residue left by famine. Famine is one of the very few evils
+before which human power stands helpless. The government has done very
+much by irrigation schemes and by the building of railways to mitigate
+this evil. By famine funds and relief works it strives, as it did the last
+famine, to reduce the mortality and suffering arising from these seasons
+of drought. But the constant penury of the people, and the fact of their
+always living upon the verge of hunger and want, make it almost impossible
+to save many from the terrible result of such visitations. Perhaps there
+is no other thing, at present, which occupies more of the time and thought
+of the Imperial Government than this; but, to drive entirely away this
+hideous demon from a land which is peculiarly liable to drought, and while
+the people are chronically unprepared to meet the least extra drain, is
+more than can be expected from any government.
+
+The railroads of the land are manifestations of the material progress
+which meet one on all sides. In the extent of its railroads India is the
+fifth country in the world. Already the splendid railway system, upon
+which travel is as comfortable as, and perhaps cheaper than, in any other
+country in the world, has extended 23,000 miles and reaches the remotest
+parts of the land. These throbbing arteries carry life and enterprise to
+all portions of India; and many regions not yet made thus accessible will
+soon listen to the neigh of the iron horse and feel the pulsations of new
+life thereby. Three hundred million pounds sterling have been expended in
+this work alone.
+
+But better, if possible, than these roads is the rapidly developing
+irrigation system which brings security of life and works prosperity
+wherever it reaches. Nearly 14,000,000 acres are now cultivated under this
+system. This includes fourteen and eight-tenths per cent. of all
+cultivated land in India. One great enterprise in this line is the “Peryar
+Project” of South India which was large in its conception, perfect in its
+execution and is rich in its blessings. It consists in the diversion of a
+large river which vainly poured its treasures down the western
+mountainside into the Arabian Sea, and causing its waters to flow into the
+eastern plains to fertilize the thirsty land as far as the Bay of Bengal.
+It embraces the second largest dam in the world, a tunnel one and
+one-fourth miles through the mountain, and many miles of distributing
+channels. It will irrigate at least 150,000 acres for rice cultivation and
+will feed 400,000 people. I live in the heart of the region thus
+fertilized and refreshed, and know the joy of the residents who also stand
+astonished before the magic power of these white people who do for them
+what, they say, even their gods failed to accomplish. It is well to
+remember that these irrigation schemes, now found in India, are much the
+most extensive in any country.
+
+Looking at her commerce during the Victorian reign alone, we see a growth
+of 1,000 per cent. in the imports and exports of India. The export of tea
+has risen from nothing to 70,000 tons, and that of cotton from nothing to
+220,000 tons. There are now in the land 150 cotton-mills with 150,000
+labourers. Three million tons of coal are annually mined, and gold mines
+yield £1,000,000 sterling every year. It may, indeed, be said that India
+has now, for the first time in its history, taken a place as a land of
+manufactures, trade and commerce.
+
+
+
+
+4. Social Life.
+
+
+The contrast between the social life of the East and that of the West is
+marked. Problems that today stir this land to its depth have no existence
+in India. The conservatism of India is proverbial. The Hindu people have
+been kept back from all progress, so that questions arising about human
+rights and liberty have not begun to be mooted there. The thousand
+problems of our land are the direct result of the emphasis which our
+civilization has given to human rights and individual freedom and the
+equality of men. India has thus far denied to the individual those rights
+and liberties which are deemed elementary and fundamental in the West. Its
+emphasis has always been upon the rights and privileges of Society as a
+corporate body. It has ignored entirely the claims of the individual and
+has prevented him from enjoying his inalienable rights in any division of
+society. This may be seen in the two great departments of life in that
+land.
+
+
+
+(_a_) The Family.
+
+
+The family systems of the East and of the West are essentially different.
+In India the Joint Family System prevails. According to this system
+members of a family for three generations live together and have all
+things in common. No member of the family can claim anything as his own.
+It is the old patriarchal system and emphasizes the rights of the family
+as a whole, and denies to any individual member separate possession or
+privileges. This system has had a long day in India; but, as western ideas
+are spreading, dissatisfaction is manifestly increasing, especially among
+the educated classes. The recent introduction to the Madras Legislature of
+the so-called “Gains of Learning Bill” is the first serious attack made
+upon that system. By means of this bill, which was introduced by an
+orthodox Hindu, but which is not yet passed, an educated man could claim
+exclusive right to ownership of all properties acquired by him through his
+education. Thus, for the first time in India an individual might claim,
+apart from the family, that wealth which was acquired by himself. This
+bill has brought opposition from the public, because it conflicts with the
+rights of the joint family, and is a serious blow to all the old Hindu
+family privileges. The Hindu joint family system, while it has been a
+source of some blessing to the land, has also been a serious curse in that
+it has fostered laziness, dissension and improvidence, and has put a ban
+upon individual initiative and ambition.
+
+Child marriages have been an unfailing source of evil to the land. Of this
+Sir John Strachey says: “It would be difficult to imagine anything more
+abominable than the frequent consequences of child marriages by which
+multitudes of girls of ten to twelve or less are given over to outrage;
+or, if they belong to the higher class of Hindus, are doomed to lives of
+degraded widowhood.”
+
+The Indian government has endeavoured to remove this evil; but at all
+points it has been opposed not only by conservative, orthodox Hindus, but
+also by educated members of the community. No system can degrade the
+womanhood of a race, nor, indeed, for that matter, its manhood, more than
+that which marries its girls in childhood and which consigns millions of
+them to wretched widowhood. One of the consequences is that girls of even
+twelve years are known to become mothers in that land, while very few
+attain the age of eighteen without bearing children. An increasing
+population under these physical conditions cannot be a healthy or a
+vigorous one.
+
+
+
+(_b_) Society.
+
+
+In India, Society is almost exclusively the product of the ancient caste
+system. A more elaborate social system than this was never known in the
+world. It is an order of social tyranny of the worst sort, whereby every
+man is compelled to give up his own individuality and to be bound to the
+iron will of an ignorant community: a will also which is based upon the
+past and conforms to the rules and habits of peoples who lived in remote
+antiquity. No greater millstone could be hung around the neck of any
+people than that of the multitudinous caste rules of Manu and later
+accretions which are the all in all of Hindu life. There may have been
+good in this system in the past, and it may have conserved some blessings
+of antiquity; but today it is the worst tyranny and the greatest curse
+that has blasted the life of the people. It is the source of their
+physical degeneracy, for it compels them to marry within narrow lines of
+consanguinity. It has cursed the people with a narrow sympathy; for no man
+in that system deems it his duty to bless or help those beyond his own
+caste. It has sown poverty broadcast over the land; for it prohibits a man
+from engaging in any work or trade which is not prescribed by caste rules
+and customs; and thus has brought many to penury, want and famine. When
+the caste-prescribed occupation or work is not available, the suffering is
+very great.
+
+It has brought stagnation to the people by restraining every man who had
+ambition to move forward and improve his prospects in life. The whole
+village regards as conceited a young man of the outcastes who seeks to
+rise in life; they soon bring him low. Progress is impossible under the
+caste system.
+
+In like manner, it has fostered the pride and presumption of one class and
+destroyed the ambition and aspiration of the other. No people on earth
+today are more proud than the Brahmans; none more hopelessly abject than
+the Pariahs and other outcastes.
+
+It has also made national unity and the spirit of fellowship impossible in
+the land; large corporate interests are impossible for the people. The
+castes of the community are filled with jealousy and are mutually
+antagonistic; each division having rules and ceremonies which make it
+impossible for communion of interests with others. Many would like to see
+it removed; but the system itself has created such abjectness of feeling
+among them that they dare not come forward to stem its tide or oppose it.
+
+
+
+
+5. The Educational System.
+
+
+Ignorance still rests like a pall upon that land. According to the census
+of 1891, out of a total population of 261,840,000, 133,370,000 were males.
+Of these, 118,819,000 were analphabet. Including boys under instruction,
+only 14,550,000 could read and write. Of the 128,470,000 females only
+740,000 could read and write or were being instructed. In other words,
+only eleven per cent. of the males and a little more than one-half of one
+per cent. of the females were in any sense literate. In Madras, we find
+the greatest progress; but even there eighty-five per cent. of the male
+and ninety-nine per cent. of the female population are illiterate. In
+Oudh, on the other hand, corresponding figures are ninety-four and very
+nearly one hundred per cent. When it is remembered that the Brahmans, who
+constitute only five per cent. of the total population, include seventeen
+per cent. of the literate class and more than twenty per cent. of those
+who know English, it can be understood that the illiteracy of the common
+people is still greater than that indicated by the above figures.
+
+Considerable effort has been made by the government to educate this
+immense population. It is seriously handicapped in this endeavour by want
+of funds. The State does not largely enter into the establishing of
+schools of its own; its policy being to give grants in aid to private
+bodies on the basis of results achieved. And it contents itself with the
+establishing and conducting of relatively only a few schools of its own
+which shall serve as models and as a stimulus to the private aided
+institutions. More than three-fourths of the education of the land is thus
+conducted by private bodies which are encouraged by the government through
+its grants in aid. There still remain not a few indigenous or, so-called,
+“piall” schools. Educationally, these schools are of little value, as
+their training is both antiquated in kind and extremely limited in
+quantity. They are interesting because they reveal to us the old
+educational methods of the land. Schools on modern lines, however, by
+coming under government surveillance, for the purpose of receiving grants
+in aid, are conducted much more efficiently, and attain results worthy to
+be compared with those of western lands. The chief feature of the
+educational system, controlled, examined and aided by government, is the
+emphasis given to an English training. From the second year of
+instruction, the English language grows annually in importance in the
+curriculum of studies. In the grammar school it becomes compulsory and in
+the high school and college it is the sole medium of the communication of
+knowledge. The English language is emphasized also because it is the test
+for admission even into many of the lowest of the numberless offices in
+connection with government service; so that the study of this language of
+the West has become to young India practically a necessity and a craze.
+People of the lowest conditions in life pawn and mortgage their property
+and involve themselves in terrible debts for the sake of giving their sons
+an English education.
+
+Christian missions constitute one of the principal bodies which engage in
+the training of Hindu youth. One-ninth of all the school children of India
+are found in mission schools. This number includes 330,000 boys and nearly
+100,000 girls. In the training of girls, Protestant missions have not only
+been pioneers; they are also today much the most prominent and efficient
+educators of the women of the land. Their girls’ schools and colleges are
+not only the most numerous, but also the most efficiently conducted and
+thoroughly managed of all institutions for women in India. The Madras
+Christian College for boys and the Sarah Tucker Woman’s College of
+Tinnevelly are among the best institutions for those classes in India. The
+educational system of India culminates in the five Universities of
+Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, Allahabad and Lahore. These are not instructing,
+but simply examining universities like the University of London. With
+these the 140 colleges of two grades and of various degrees of efficiency,
+are affiliated. In these colleges are found 18,000 students of whom more
+than 5,000 graduate yearly. The city of Calcutta is a city of many
+colleges and has more college students, relative to its population, than
+almost any city of the West.
+
+Though the masses of the people, and especially the women, are still, as
+we have seen, grossly ignorant, yet every year encouraging progress is
+being made in spreading the blessings of, and in creating a taste for,
+education. Every year natives themselves enter more largely into the
+educational work and find in it not only a living, but noble scope for
+their activities. Among the higher and cultured classes there is a growing
+body of young men, besides the ambitious few from the lower classes,
+crowding into the higher institutions of the land. It is one of the
+problems of the day to direct the mind of this increasing army of
+university graduates to other professions than the overcrowded government
+service. There is a persistent feeling among these youth that it is the
+business of State to supply them with lucrative posts upon their
+graduation. And it is the disappointed element of this class which
+furnishes so many of the discontented, blatant demagogues who are almost a
+menace to the land.
+
+            [Illustration: Madura Mission Hospital For Women.]
+
+Yet this educational work is one of the potent, leavening influences of
+the country, and is helping greatly in carrying quietly forward one of the
+mightiest revolutions that have been witnessed in any land. In its train
+follows closely the social elevation of the people. The relaxation of the
+terrible caste system, the elevation of woman and her redemption from some
+of the cruelties and injustice of the past, immediately attend that
+expanding knowledge which results from the schools of the land.
+
+Protestant missions are preëminent in their work of educating the
+Christian communities gathered together by them.(3) Though these
+communities are largely drawn from the lowest outcasts, yet they compare
+favourably, in their educational equipment, with the highest classes. This
+is a significant indication of their present, and a bright promise for
+their future, position among the people of India.
+
+
+
+
+6. The Political Situation.
+
+
+India today is politically a subject country. Though in one sense England
+did not directly subjugate India, it is nevertheless true that its
+inhabitants, though treated with large consideration, are today a subject
+people—ruled by a foreign nation 7,000 miles away. Hence, it might be
+expected that political rights and privileges would not prevail there as
+among a self-governing, entirely independent, people. The existence of an
+army of about 75,000 Britons in that land today is significant of the
+situation and partly reveals one grip with which Great Britain holds India
+and makes it a part of her great empire. I do not wish to minimize the
+moral power with which also, and increasingly, Great Britain draws India
+by sweet compulsion to herself; of this I shall speak later.
+
+It should also be remembered that the genius of the Orient is not for
+self-government; in the East, people have little taste for free
+institutions; they have always craved, and found their greatest happiness
+and chief welfare in, a strong paternal government. The ordinary Hindu
+seeks for himself nothing higher than a government which, while not asking
+for his opinion concerning its policy and acts, will at least dispense a
+fair modicum of justice to him and his.
+
+Notwithstanding all this, the Indian government has bestowed upon the
+people a wonderfully large meed of power and privilege. Political progress
+in the land is one of the marvels of the past century. Before the British
+entered India that land had never enjoyed the first taste of
+representative institutions. Today the query which arises in the mind of
+disinterested persons who know and love India is, whether political rights
+and liberties have not, of late years, been conferred too rapidly upon
+them. It should not be expected that a people who, by instinct and
+unbroken heritage, are the children of the worst kind of autocratic and
+absolute government, should acquire, in one age or century, wisdom or
+aptitude to rule themselves. The mass of Hindus love to be led and they
+follow easily.
+
+But there is a small and growing party of the soil who have aptly learned
+many of the lessons taught them by the rulers. The best acquired of all
+these lessons is that of the power of agitation and of the efficacy among
+the Anglo-Saxon race of the cry for human rights. The only difficulty is
+that one might suppose, from the language of some of these men that
+England has not yet conceded to worthy Indians any of those political
+privileges which every Anglo-Saxon citizen demands for himself. As a
+matter of fact, we see in the municipalities of that land a form of
+popular government such as even not all western countries enjoy. The power
+of the franchise, in the election of municipal commissioners, is vested in
+all those who are possessed of the least amount of property. Even women
+enjoy the franchise; and it is a curious fact that the natives of South
+India have recently protested in the newspapers against the granting of
+this power to women, because, they say, the power is exercised only by
+“dancing girls” and other public characters. To those who watch carefully
+the working of this right of municipal franchise and see how easily and
+speedily the natives have adopted all the vices and tricks of the system,
+it does not by any means seem an unmixed good. And the hardest critics of
+the system that I have met have been intelligent and loyal Indians who
+believe that this meed of self-government is fraught with evil. The
+District Boards also are composed almost entirely of native gentlemen, and
+they have large powers in the administration of the internal affairs of
+the land. Moreover these municipal and local bodies, together, elect
+members for provincial legislative bodies where they enjoy recently
+enlarged powers for interpellating the government—a power which, by
+excessive use or abuse, they may soon forfeit.
+
+To all this must be added the freedom of the press, which also has
+recently been abused by the dissemination of disloyal and seditious
+sentiments, but which adds immensely to the powers of the people.
+
+Then the “National Congress” is a peculiar institution which, while it
+gives scope to the political aspirations of many natives, adds, by its
+very existence, to the lustre of the British Raj in the land. Just imagine
+for a moment the existence of such a Congress under Russian rule! It is
+true that this Congress, which meets annually in some great city of the
+land, has no connection with government or legislative bodies and has only
+that power and influence which inhere in its deliberations and
+resolutions. It is also true that up to the present it has given itself
+largely to the criticism and abuse of government. By this it has alienated
+some of its best friends. Still, even as a public censor it has doubtless
+done good, and offers to the discontented a wholesome vent for pent up
+feelings. It is also a remarkable gathering in its numbers of cultured men
+and illustrates one of the wonders which Great Britain has accomplished in
+that land. To think, that out of the babel of Indian tongues there should
+gather together in one place annually some 5,000 native gentlemen to
+discuss questions of State, and to criticise one of the most modern of
+governments in the pure English accents of Addison or of Macaulay! What a
+wonderful object lesson of progress this!
+
+Nor is Great Britain as remiss or as selfish as many would lead us to
+believe in the distribution of the loaves of office. There are only
+122,661 male Britishers in that land (including the army)—one to every
+2,500 of the population. Of these, only 750 are found in the higher
+offices of government. In the Provincial Services 2,449 natives are
+employed in high judicial and administrative posts. It is a significant
+fact that out of 114,150 appointments, carrying Rs.(4) 1,000 annually,
+ninety-seven per cent, are in the hands of natives. To all offices, below
+that of the Governor of the Province, natives are eligible. As Judges of
+the High Court and as Members of the legislative bodies not a few Indians
+are found; as they are also in the Indian Civil Service which was so long
+exclusively filled by Anglo-Indians. It hardly appears how England can
+hold that great land to herself, as a member of her empire, with fewer of
+her own citizens than are now found at the helm. Nor does it yet appear
+that a strong, efficient and acceptable government can be maintained there
+by a large reduction of this force. I use the word “acceptable” advisedly;
+and it is certainly the business of Great Britain to discover and consult
+the wishes of the people—not of the hungry office seekers—in this matter.
+After many years of observation and of living among the people, I am
+convinced that nine-tenths of them are prepared any day to vote in favour
+of the relative increase, and not the decrease, of the European official
+force. The people have found them to be just and honest; they know that
+they can be depended upon to administer justice with an even hand and that
+they are incorruptible. In their own native officials they have no
+confidence. They have found, alas, too often that justice is sold by them
+to the highest bidder. The “middle men” who arrange such matters are too
+commonly known as the accompaniments of the native courts of justice. It
+is true that some native judges are above such venality. But I know how
+general is the want of native confidence in native officials. Many a time
+have I been importuned to use my influence to have cases transferred from
+the jurisdiction of the native to the Englishman. And the reason
+invariably given is that “The white man will not accept bribes and will
+give justice.” Indeed, it may be said that the chief difficulty which
+confronts the Government in its great work is that of saving the people
+from low, mercenary and unprincipled native officials—especially those of
+the lower and lowest grades.
+
+The police department is corrupt to the core. The common people dread the
+policeman as they do the highwayman; for the constable rarely touches a
+case without making money out of the transaction; and he is expert in
+manufacturing cases.
+
+What India needs today, above all else, is an honest, faithful, efficient
+class of officials. The presence of a few English dignitaries found there
+is worth ten times its cost to the land, purifying and toning up the
+service.
+
+Considering the political situation as a whole, I confidently maintain
+that the people of India enjoy political rights and privileges quite as
+extensively as they are prepared wisely to exercise them. No people
+anywhere enjoy larger privileges, relative to their ability to use them
+wisely; and no subject people on earth have ever been treated with larger
+consideration by their conquerors, or have been more faithfully trained to
+enter upon an ever increasing sphere of opportunity and of
+self-government. The political situation in India today—in the privileges
+and rights which the people enjoy—is a marvellous testimony to the wisdom
+and unselfishness of Great Britain in her Indian rule.
+
+
+
+
+7. The Government of India.
+
+
+The government of India is perhaps the most elaborate in the world; the
+highest powers of statesmanship have been manifested by the successive
+rulers during more than a century in the development of a State which is
+extraordinary no less in the complication of its provisions and details
+than in the wise adaptation of human laws to meet the multitudinous
+exigencies of this great conglomeration of peoples. It should also be
+remembered that British statesmen in their work of legislation in India,
+and in their coordination of laws, have not only had to consider the
+manifold character of the different portions of the population of the
+land; what is more difficult still, they have been compelled to ingratiate
+themselves with the Indians by conserving, so far as possible, those
+myriads of ancient laws and customs which obtain there. The laws of Manu
+and of other writers of twenty-five centuries ago have been handed down by
+this people through the ages and have accumulated authority and reverence
+with increasing time, until today all Hindus regard them as divinely given
+and as possessing irresistible claim upon them for all time. So that,
+while it may be said on the one hand that the laws of India are largely
+built upon western foundations, and savour of Christian principles and
+modern ideas; it should also be remembered, on the other hand, that the
+_dicta_ of ancient Hindu lawgivers find a large place in the legal codes
+of that land.
+
+Yea, even more than this is true. There are a host of caste rules and
+customs which have no further sanction than the fact that they have become
+customs, and yet which have been dignified with the authority of law. This
+is of course due chiefly to the fact that most customs in India have a
+religious basis and interpretation, and therefore draw to themselves that
+sanctity and claim which belong to things religious. Thus, for instance,
+every caste in South India has its own marriage customs. Most of these are
+highly incongruous with modern ideas and rights, and most of them
+absolutely disregard the rights of the wife. And yet it has been deemed
+wise by the State to conserve and to give the sanction of law to these
+multitudinous marriage customs which are enough in themselves to
+constitute an extensive code.
+
+Some conception of the magnitude of the work carried on by the Indian
+Government may be gathered from the following description by Bishop
+Thoburn:—“With a population greater than that of the five great powers of
+Europe put together; with a revenue exceeding $350,000,000; with a foreign
+commerce worth $768,000,000 annually; with a standing army 230,000 strong,
+more than two-thirds of which are composed of native soldiers; with a
+drilled police force of more than 150,000 men; with a code of laws in many
+respects superior to those found on the statute books of European
+countries; and with courts of justice as impartial and as faithfully
+conducted as any to be found in the world, India may well claim a place
+among the great empires of the present era.”
+
+The British Government has respected the possessions of native chiefs in
+whose hands still remain about one-third of the country. But these so
+called native territories are so largely under English control and
+guidance that we may well regard them as essentially a part of the British
+Domain.
+
+The Secretary of State for India has practically the control of British
+Indian affairs. He, with his council in London, has the final word in
+Indian matters of paramount importance. Nevertheless, the Indian
+Government finds this power rarely antagonistic in matters whereon it has
+firmly made up its mind.
+
+The British possessions in India are distributed into twelve governments,
+each separately organized and yet all of them constituting parts of the
+Supreme Government of India. This Supreme Government is administered by a
+Governor-General or Viceroy with whom is associated a Council of six
+members. This Council constitutes the Viceroy’s Cabinet and each one has
+charge of a separate department of the government.
+
+Of the Provincial Governments of India, the principal ones are the
+Province of Bengal with 71,000,000, under a Lieutenant-Governor; United
+Provinces of Agra and Oudh, with a population of 47,000,000, under a
+Lieutenant-Governor; Presidency of Madras, with 35,500,000, under a
+Governor; Presidency of Bombay, with 18,800,000, under a Governor; and the
+province of Punjab, with 20,800,000, under a Lieutenant-Governor.
+
+The unit of government in India is the District. The whole of India is
+divided into 235 Districts. At the head of a District is placed an officer
+known as Collector, Senior Magistrate, or Deputy Commissioner, who is
+practically ruler of that division. He is the administrative
+representative of the government. In each District there is also a
+District Judge and a few other officers at the head of various
+departments. These Districts vary in size and population, covering areas
+from 14,000 to 1,000 square miles, and containing from 3,000,000 to
+250,000 population. The average population of a District is 800,000.
+Nothing impresses the careful observer more than the large amount of
+responsibility and the multifarious duties which devolve upon these
+District officers. During recent years, however, authority has been
+withheld increasingly from Collectors and centralized in the Provincial
+Governments; for at the head of every Province also there is a government
+patterned somewhat after the Supreme Government in Calcutta.
+
+                 [Illustration: Maharajah Of Travancore.]
+
+                     [Illustration: Rajah Of Ramnad.]
+
+No greater mistake can be made than to think that India is either crudely
+or poorly governed. Owing to the great poverty of the land it is extremely
+difficult to maintain so costly and elaborate a régime as the present one;
+and many claim that for the support of so expensive a luxury the people
+are taxed beyond their ability and resources. The taxation imposed by a
+government on its people is rightly considered, both in its extent and
+character, as a measure of the wisdom of the State. The critics of the
+Indian government are prone to dwell upon the alleged injustice of its
+taxes. It is, however, difficult to understand why this matter should be
+pressed unless it be on the ground, apparently maintained, that the
+poverty of the people should exempt them from _any_ of the burdens of
+taxation—a theory beautifully generous to the people but fatal to the
+maintenance of any government. The salt tax does certainly seem cruel in
+its severe pressure upon the very poor; and yet it is the only one whereby
+this very large part of the community can be reached at all, and made to
+contribute its mite to the State which protects it.
+
+Comparing present taxes with those of the past, we should certainly expect
+heavier imposts now, because the government furnishes today, as an
+equivalent of protection and blessing, infinitely more than former
+dynasties did. And yet Sir W. Hunter has ably shown from a comparison of
+taxes levied by the present government and by the Moghul government that
+the modern Hindu is vastly better off than was his ancestor of two and
+three centuries ago. Today, five and one half per cent. is collected in
+land tax; under the Moghul rule they had to pay from thirty-three per
+cent. to fifty per cent. Besides this, the Mohammedan imposed various
+other taxes, many of them upon non-Mohammedans as a religious penalty. Nor
+were the Hindu governments one whit better off; and even today the native
+states are much harder upon the people than is the British Raj.
+
+The famine commission is the highest authority on the subject. In its
+exhaustive report of 1880 it writes:—“In the majority of native
+governments the revenue officer takes all he can get, and would take
+treble the revenue we should, if he were strong enough to exact it.”
+
+If we pursue the comparison to that of European peoples, Indian taxation
+would seem but a trifle. Placing even English taxes side by side with
+India’s, we shall find instruction. The average income in the United
+Kingdom is £40, while the tax assessed is 44_s_, or five and one-half per
+cent. In India, alas, the average income is only 36_s_. But then the tax
+is only 1_s_, 9_d_ per capita which is a trifle smaller per capita than
+that for England. Here again we are impressed with the reasonableness of
+the tax imposed.
+
+The opium and liquor traffic in India is one which has drawn forth much
+criticism. From the moral standpoint the critics have a very strong case.
+The evil which the opium traffic of India has inflicted upon China—against
+her will too—has been enormous. The large army of opium eaters which it
+has created, only to destroy with a terrible death, has long been an
+argument to which no nation of England’s position and pretensions can
+render satisfactory reply.
+
+In like manner, the State monopoly of the drink traffic is neither
+honourable nor wise. It not only gives unwonted and unwarrantable dignity
+to a disreputable business, it also involves the State in the business of
+making a large army of drunkards in the land. To take up a traffic like
+this, for the revenue there is in it, is to trifle with the higher
+interests of the subjects and to become instrumental in the corruption and
+misery of the people whom it is bound to protect. It is questionable
+whether any other civilized government has involved itself in such
+unworthy means of creating a revenue. Doubtless, opium and drink
+represent, morally, the weakest part of this government. Of course, the
+all important defense lies in the revenue thus acquired. These two items
+of revenue flow more easily than any others into the depleted treasury of
+State. To give these up in behalf of what is termed sentiment, would
+necessitate the imposition of other heavy taxes. This is an aspect of the
+question which too easily silences and secures the acquiescence of the
+people of India. But, its evil is great and is spreading.
+
+The drink curse is rapidly becoming one of the trying problems of India.
+It was slanderously remarked some years ago that if the English then left
+that country the only monuments left behind of their life would have been
+broken whiskey bottles! There is indeed ground today for the fear that if
+England were to abandon the land, it would leave, as the saddest monument
+of its past, an immensely increasing army of drinkers; and this evil is
+further enhanced by the mean ideal of life which the ordinary Englishman
+sets before Hindus by his passion for the cup. Half a century ago an
+Englishman died while on duty in the jungles in South India, and his body
+was there buried in the wilderness. The natives soon erected a shrine over
+his grave and, for a long time, offered, in true sobriety, whiskey and
+cheroots to appease his thirsty and unsatisfied spirit! It is not strange
+that the natives should recognize a continuity of spirit-taste in the here
+and the hereafter of the Sahib!
+
+The recent utterance of the Archbishop of Canterbury on this subject
+should be heeded by the State. “The true principle of morals,” he says,
+“is to have nothing whatever to do with that which is shown to be
+necessarily productive of evil. The English nation caused the opium evil
+in China and we are responsible for that evil. I also protest against the
+principle of raising revenue by temptations to evil. It might be right for
+a government to pause before interfering with private trade; but, in this
+case we ourselves are carrying on the evil trade. Such a thing on the part
+of a great government is, I think, without a parallel in the whole world.”
+
+The Army in India is a necessary but great evil in the expense which it
+involves to the government, no less than in the evil life which it leads
+among, and the evil example which it sets, the native community. Its
+influence is deplorable. It is the most vulnerable to attack of all
+departments of government, both on the score of expense and character.
+“Tommy Atkins” is the greatest trial to the Hindu, and brutally rides
+rough-shod over all his sensibilities. If he could only be left at home
+with safety to British interests in the land, it would help largely to
+improve the situation between the two races. It would also save England
+from the terrible disgrace of immorality which the army is instrumental in
+carrying as a plague wherever it goes. Awful indeed is the prevalence of
+the social vice in the native community itself; but the English Army
+spreads the demoralization in a most disgraceful way.
+
+Considering the government as a whole, then, it is wonderful, both in the
+extent of its operation and in its numberless activities and agencies. Its
+purpose is generally noble, and its wisdom, both in the framing of laws
+and in general administration, has been most marked. The occasion of most
+of its failings and weaknesses is the poverty of the people whereby the
+government has, at times, been driven to subterfuges to avoid bankruptcy.
+
+
+
+
+8. The Mission of Great Britain in India.
+
+
+The British people are only today beginning to realize fully the wonderful
+mission which, under God’s providence, they are called to fulfill in that
+great land of the Vedas. For nearly a century the commercial motive was
+not only paramount but was practically the only motive which impelled the
+Anglo-Saxon in his contact with India. Everything Indian had value in his
+eyes in proportion as it added to his revenues. For many years he excluded
+the Missionary of the Cross from his domains in the East, lest that good
+man should, by teaching the people, disturb the revenue of the Honourable
+East India Company. As the domains of this great company extended and its
+powers multiplied, the English nation gradually came to realize their own
+responsibility as a people to the land; and the Indians thus were brought
+within their influence. This contact and communion of interests became to
+them the voice of responsibility and of obligation to impart their
+blessings to them as well as to take their material resources from them.
+The dawn of the new altruistic sense towards its subject people, though
+long deferred, rapidly grew into full daylight; and Great Britain today
+feels, as no country has felt before, its privilege and duty to bestow
+upon its dependency in the East the highest and best which it can furnish.
+
+The difficulty of England’s mission in India is greatly enhanced by the
+difference which amounts almost to a contrast between her own people and
+the inhabitants of India. The striking difference of type and character
+existing between the Anglo-Saxon and the Hindu facilitates all sorts of
+misunderstanding between them, and aids perceptibly in making the path of
+the British Raj a very thorny one in the land. It would perhaps be
+impossible to find two peoples who are farther removed from each other in
+temperament and training—whose nature and antecedents are more
+irreconcilable at all points. While the Anglo-Indian is bold, frank and
+just, even to harshness, the Hindu is subtle, affable, practiced to
+dissimulation, with ready susceptibilities to temporize and to barter
+justice for expediency. On the one side, we see the Westerner haughty,
+unyielding and unwilling to conciliate; on the other we behold the
+Oriental willing to be trampled upon when it seems necessary, and to smile
+with apparent gratitude under the process; but, withal, possessed of a
+large inheritance of ineradicable prejudices, which make a contact with
+his too domineering Western lord an unceasing trial to him.
+
+There is another point at which the two races are antipodal. The Briton is
+progressive to the core. He only needs to be assured that a certain course
+is right and for the best interests of the community, in order to adopt
+it. His face ever looks upward and his ambition is ever to go forward.
+But, in India he lives among a race whose chief divinity is custom and the
+gist of whose decalogue is, “Hold fast to the past.” As they approach a
+proposed enterprise their first and last question concerning it is not
+whether it is right and best, but whether it is in a line with the past
+and would be approved by their ancestors. The whole country has been
+anchored for the last twenty-five centuries to a code of social laws and
+customs which are more unyielding than the laws of the Medes and Persians.
+With them conservatism is the acme of piety and propriety. All progress
+has been practically forced upon the country from without, and in the
+teeth of their most sacred institutions and their most earnest
+protestation and opposition. Thus the great difference between the two
+peoples has been a serious hindrance to the realization of British designs
+in that land.
+
+Notwithstanding all this, Great Britain has patiently, persistently and
+doggedly carried on her work and pursued her highest ideals for India.
+
+And what have been the ideals and blessings which she is seeking to
+achieve for that great land?
+
+The first is that of Western culture and civilization. In these two
+particulars, England has introduced into India a perpetual conflict.
+Western ideas, processes of thought, points of aspect and ideals of beauty
+and of life have been gradually supplanting the very different ones of the
+East. Western life in India today is a constant challenge to the people to
+study, admire and appropriate its many features of thought and conduct;
+and India is not insensible to this call. The railroads and hospitals, the
+schools and sanitary projects which have been introduced by the West into
+that land are markedly transforming the sentiment and the life of the
+people. The contrast between the people of India today and of a century
+ago is all but complete in this respect. While the educational
+institutions of the land are revolutionizing the thought, the more
+material elements of civilization are transforming the outer life of the
+people.
+
+England also is imparting to India the Anglo-Saxon conception of right, of
+law and of justice. In order to know how widely apart the East and West
+were in this respect, one should live in India a few years. The idea of
+equal rights to all the people, of freedom of speech, of liberty of
+conscience and of other similar rights which are regarded as elementary
+and fundamental in the West, was all but foreign to India when England
+established her power there. That the government itself should treat high
+and low, the poor ryot and the wealthy rajah, the ignorant Pariah and the
+cultured Brahman as one in their claim for right and protection, for
+justice and for favour, seemed to the Hindu absurd. It is one of the best
+commentaries on British justice and administration in India, that the
+people have now come not only to regard it with satisfaction, but also as
+an indispensable condition of their life.
+
+The blessings of peace also are among the greatest which England has
+conferred upon India. “Pax Britanica” is equally known and loved today in
+India and in the British Isles. From time immemorial India had been torn
+asunder, not only by internecine wars, but also by numerous attacks from
+the peoples of other countries. India has always been a prey both to the
+decimating wars of her own unjust and ambitious tyrants, and mutually
+antagonistic castes and tribes; she has also been the easy victim of any
+hardy, enlightened, ambitious people who sought to invade her. The
+presence of Great Britain in India has been a voice commanding peace to
+its troubled and exhausted people. With a strong hand she has put down
+injustice of tribe against tribe and made impossible inter-tribal wars and
+raids. She has brought rest such as India never before enjoyed and has
+given safety to the most harmless and innocent classes, as she has peace
+to the most warlike and aggressive in the land. This great land of the
+East has thus had opportunities to grow and to develop in many of the most
+essential characteristics of individual and national progress. These
+blessings would have been impossible apart from the peace which Great
+Britain assured and wrought out for the land.
+
+In connection with this we need to emphasize the various forms of progress
+which are an essential part of British blessing to India. We have seen
+that India was a stagnant land, that its people were preëminently
+unprogressive and ultra-conservative. England has helped her to break down
+many of these barriers of the past. Though India is obstinately slow in
+her acceptance of the spirit and blessings of progress, England has thrust
+upon her many of the conditions, and compelled her to enter into some of
+the paths of progress which will bring inestimable benefits into her life.
+
+In like manner, the mission of England has been and is a religious one.
+Her Majesty, Queen Victoria, upon assuming authority in the land, issued a
+proclamation to the effect that under her reign all the inhabitants of
+India should enjoy perfect right to worship as they please and whom they
+please. It is true that too many of the representatives of the British
+Government in India today are so impressed with the importance of a
+government that is absolutely neutral in religious matters, that they have
+both ceased themselves to manifest any religious preference in their life
+and are scrupulously careful to see to it that Christians get just a
+little less of right and of protection than the adherents of other faiths.
+This they consider to be true altruism added to breadth of religious
+sentiment!
+
+Notwithstanding this, nothing is more manifest in India today than that
+the very fact of the rulers of the land being nominally Christians adds to
+the prestige of Christianity in the land. The people naturally come to
+regard it as the State religion. What is more significant, however, is the
+fact that, at the basis of modern laws in that land and of the multiplying
+institutions of the country, distinctively Christian principles are
+universally recognized. Should the government of India resolve to be
+_absolutely_ neutral in all religious matters, it would have to renounce
+those laws and institutions which have furnished it with all its success
+in the land and which today crown its efforts with largest usefulness. To
+the government, and unconsciously to the masses of the people, Christian
+thought and truth and method necessarily characterize most of the laws,
+institutions and processes of India. They are all a part of the work of
+Great Britain in that land and such a part as she could not dispense with
+if she would. It is a part of her unconscious Christian heritage.
+
+Thus the work of Great Britain in India has been attended with a large
+degree of success; it has lifted the land out of a condition of
+semi-savagery and placed it among the civilized nations of the world. It
+has cut it asunder from its anchorage to the past and brought it almost
+abreast of the times. There is still much to be done and much to be
+desired. We shall be glad to see the day when radical steps in progress
+shall be taken voluntarily by the people and through the initiative of
+their own leaders, rather than that they should wait to have them thrust
+upon them, as in the past, by the progressiveness of the foreigner among
+them.
+
+The people, on the whole, appreciate the blessings of British supremacy in
+the land. If they are not demonstratively loyal to the government, they
+certainly do rest satisfied in the progress which has been achieved for
+them.
+
+The well known political leader of Bengal, Babu Surendra Nath Banerji,
+recently expressed, in the following eloquent words, the sentiment of the
+most thoughtful and influential natives of the country.
+
+“Our allegiance to the British rule,” he says, “is based upon the highest
+considerations of practical expediency. As a representative of the
+educated community of India—and I am entitled to speak on their behalf and
+in their name,—I may say that we regard British rule in India as a
+dispensation of Divine Providence. England is here for the highest and the
+noblest purposes of history. She is here to rejuvenate an ancient people,
+to infuse into them the vigour, the virility and the robustness of the
+West, and so pay off the long-standing debt, accumulating since the
+morning of the world, which the West owes to the East. We are anxious for
+the permanence of British rule in India, not only as a guarantee for
+stability and order, but because with it are bound up the best prospects
+of our political advancement. To the English people has been entrusted in
+the Councils of Providence the high function of teaching the nations of
+the earth the great lesson of constitutional liberty, of securing the ends
+of stable government, largely tempered by popular freedom. This glorious
+work has been nobly begun in India. It has been resolutely carried on by a
+succession of illustrious Anglo-Indian statesmen whose names are enshrined
+in our grateful recollections. Marvellous as have been the industrial
+achievements of the Victorian era in India, they sink into insignificance
+when compared with the great moral trophies which distinguish that epoch.
+Roads have been constructed; rivers have been spanned; telegraph and
+railway lines have been laid down; time and space have been annihilated;
+Nature and the appliances of Nature have been made to minister to the
+wants of man. But these are nothing when compared to the bold, decisive,
+statesmanlike measures which have been taken in hand for the intellectual,
+the moral and the political regeneration of my countrymen. Under English
+influences the torpor of ages has been dissipated; the pulsations of a new
+life have been communicated to the people; an inspiriting sense of public
+duty has been evolved, the spirit of curiosity has been stirred and a
+moral revolution, the most momentous in our annals, culminating in the
+transformation of national ideals and aspirations, has been brought
+about.”
+
+Great Britain has not been, and is not now, without failings in her work
+in India; and her line of progress is studded with many errors. But she
+has been faithful to her trust and has carried it out in no selfish way.
+The warm and deep loyalty of India bears testimony to this; for native
+sentiment everywhere reveals marked appreciation.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               Chapter II.
+
+
+THE RELIGIONS OF INDIA.
+
+
+India is the mother of religions. No other land has been so prolific in
+religious thought or has founded faiths which have commanded the
+allegiance of so large a portion of the human race. While the Aryans of
+the West have been content to borrow their faith from the Hebrews;
+Indo-Aryans have produced the most wonderful and mighty ethnic religion
+(Brahmanism) and also one of the three great missionary religions of the
+world (Buddhism). A third of the human race today cling with devotion to
+these two products of the fertility of the mind, and the spirituality of
+the heart, of India.
+
+India’s toleration for other religions has been marked. For twelve
+centuries she has been the asylum of Zoroastrianism. Nearly nine-tenths of
+the followers of that ancient cult of Persia found and still enjoy a
+hospitable home in India. There are more of the narrow, bigoted followers
+of Mohammed among these tolerant people than are found in any other
+land—even in the wide domains of the Sultan. Christians also have lived,
+practically unmolested, in this great land almost from Apostolic days.
+
+Thus not a few of the great Faiths of the world are at present
+represented, and are struggling either for existence or dominance, in the
+land of the Vedas.
+
+The principal faiths of the land, with their adherents, were as follows,
+according to census of 1891:
+
+Hindu          207,731,727
+Sikh             1,907,838
+Jain             1,416,638
+Buddhist(5)      7,131,361
+Parsee              89,904
+Mohammedan      57,231,164
+Jewish              17,000
+Christian(6)     2,284,000
+
+Let us consider these faiths briefly. It will be seen that Christianity
+has, as its followers, only one per cent. of the whole population of the
+land.
+
+
+
+
+(_a_) Judaism.
+
+
+The Jewish Community in India numbers only 17,000; these are found mostly
+in Bombay and Poonah. Perhaps the most interesting colony of them is that
+on the west coast in Cochin. I had the pleasure of visiting them in 1897.
+There are 1,500 of them divided into two sections—the White, and the Black
+Jews. There is a marked racial difference between the two. The Blacks were
+originally the slaves of the Whites as is shown by their historical
+documents. It is not known when the Whites came to India. Some think that
+they fled there during the Jewish exile. More likely they came upon the
+dispersion during the first century of our era. The purity of their blood
+and the remarkable fairness of their complexion indicate that the
+settlement has been from time to time reenforced from northwestern
+countries. They are an exceedingly conservative people; and in their two
+synagogues, they conduct their worship perhaps more like the Jews of
+twenty centuries ago than do any other representatives of that race today.
+The day-school connected with the White Synagogue closely resembles the
+little school which our Lord attended at Nazareth.
+
+
+
+
+(_b_) Mohammedanism.
+
+
+About one-fifth of the whole population of that land is connected with the
+religion of the great prophet of Arabia. This is a number largely in
+excess of the whole Mohammedan population of Turkey. It is very suggestive
+that this faith finds larger growth under the peaceable protection of the
+Indian, than under the semi-barbarism of the Moslem, government.
+
+This religion was carried into India in 711 A. D. at the point of the
+sword; and its establishment and success for centuries was owing to the
+same method. This community is not evenly distributed all over India; for,
+more than one-third of it is found in Bengal alone, where it furnishes the
+majority of the population. More than one-half of the adherents of this
+faith in India are converts from Hinduism. These were gathered in former
+centuries when the Mohammedan power was dominant, and when to be a member
+of any other faith than Islam was regarded as a disability. The
+Mohammedans of the country are, on the whole, physically more sturdy and
+vigorous than their neighbours. Government, in its treatment of the
+people, has to conciliate and regard with favour this class more than the
+Hindus who are four times their number. They possess a great deal of
+religious bigotry which is intrenched behind their dense ignorance. There
+is a no more ignorant element than this in the population of India; only
+six per cent. of the men are able to read and hardly any of the women; and
+they seem, even today, to have a positive aversion to the schoolhouse.
+Mohammedanism had, during the days of its dominance, considerable
+influence in the land; but it did very little to improve the material,
+moral or religious condition of the people; and it is a significant fact
+that, comparing today the adherents of Islam in India, with those of
+Hinduism, the latter are found not inferior in life, morals and
+aspirations to the followers of the prophet.
+
+The converts gathered from Mohammedanism by Christianity are few, though
+not so few as ordinarily represented. In North India encouraging success
+has been achieved by missions for this class. But in South India, where
+their numbers are fewer, efforts in their behalf have not been so well
+organised and have produced smaller results. It is a hard task to reach
+and to move this class, owing not only to the important truth of
+monotheism, which they hold with great enthusiasm, but also because of the
+supreme ignorance which blinds them equally to the weakness of their own,
+and to the excellence of the Christian, faith.
+
+
+
+
+(_c_) Parseeism.
+
+
+This faith has had adherents in India for eleven centuries. Driven out by
+Mohammedanism from their home in Persia, the Parsees found refuge in
+India. There are only 100,000 of these followers of Zoroaster in the
+world. 90,000 of them are in India; and nearly all of these reside in
+Bombay and its vicinity. Their faith, Zoroastrianism, is the purest of
+ethnic religions. It has preserved its ancient integrity and high tone
+much better than its sister faith, Brahmanism. Among the members of this
+religion are found men possessed of great enterprise, much wealth, the
+spirit of progress and of philanthropy and culture. They give high honour
+and position to their women, and in all matters of civilization are
+considerably in advance of even the best class of Hindus.
+
+This religion, though from the same source with Brahmanism, has
+fundamental differences of doctrine from that faith. None is more marked
+or significant than its Dualism as contrasted with the Pantheism of its
+sister faith. The problem of the origin of evil has found these two
+diverse interpretations and these have had a large influence in shaping
+the characters, respectively, of these two great ethnic religions.
+
+Besides the far-off common source of these two religions, indicated by the
+earliest names and character of their deities, there is hardly any bond of
+fellowship in doctrine, worship or observance between the fire worshipping
+Parsee and the Hindu idolater. And though these Parsees have, for more
+than a millennium, made India their home, they have kept themselves apart
+from the people of the land and are still as truly foreigners in the land
+of their adoption as are the English residents.
+
+
+
+
+(_d_) Buddhism.
+
+
+This religion is a child of India; its founder, Gautama, was the product
+of that land, and, next to our Lord Himself, is the greatest among the
+founders of religions. Buddhism arose as a reaction, twenty-five centuries
+ago, against the excesses of Brahmanism. It flourished wonderfully for a
+few centuries, and at the time when Christ was on earth, had gained
+supremacy over the old faith and had become the State religion in India.
+Owing to the Brahmanic revival, in the eighth century of our era, Buddhism
+was in its turn, driven out of the land, and has found refuge in Ceylon
+and in more eastern countries from that time until the present. Since then
+it has been almost entirely without followers in India proper. Of the
+British India possessions Burma is the only place where it is the popular
+faith today.
+
+Still it is not without much influence in the land of its birth. For,
+Brahmanism overcame its rival faith in India only by adopting some of its
+most fundamental contentions and teachings. Indeed, modern Hinduism is
+largely a blending of the Brahmanism of old with its supplanter, Buddhism.
+The abundant sacrifices which Brahmanism offered were entirely abolished
+in deference to Buddhistic sensibilities. The doctrine of transmigration,
+through Buddhism, received new emphasis; and kindness to all living
+creatures was extolled to a supreme virtue. As a climax to this attitude
+of conciliation Hinduism finally adopted the Buddha as the ninth
+incarnation of Vishnu. Thus, by the irony of history, Gautama, the Buddha,
+found a place in the pantheon of the religion which he gave his life to
+overthrow; and today many of the leading aspects of the life and teaching
+of the Hindus may be traced, either in source or in emphasis, to his
+religion.
+
+
+
+
+(_e_) Jainism.
+
+
+This religion is an offshoot, or the India remnant, of Buddhism. It
+perhaps represents that element among the followers of the Buddha who
+declined to be absorbed into the revived and transformed Brahmanic faith.
+Through the many centuries of their existence as a sect they have spurned
+every approach of the Brahmans and have largely stood for Buddhistic
+teaching and observances. They have differed little from Buddhists in
+their beliefs; for they deny the authority of the Hindu Vedas, disregard
+sacrifices, cultivate a high morality, believe strongly in transmigration
+and reverence life in all its forms. And yet, strangely enough, many of
+the priests of their temples are Brahmans and they place Hindu idols close
+to their shrines. They differ from the Buddhists chiefly in their objects
+of worship and in their ritual. They have a mythology of their own—a
+mythology of saints rather than of gods. These saints, or “Jaina,” (the
+“victorious ones”—those who have attained perfection through self-victory
+and discipline) are worshipped, and furnish an inspiration to all the
+devotees of that faith.
+
+The Jains, like the Parsees, are found mostly in Bombay and are a wealthy
+community, usually engaged in banking and commerce. They are noted for
+their charity, and their philanthropy is largely directed towards helping
+the poor among them and for maintaining hospitals for animals.
+
+            [Illustration: Temple Of Buddha’s Tooth, Ceylon.]
+
+            [Illustration: Oldest Relics Of Buddhism, Ceylon.]
+
+
+
+
+(_f_) Sikhism.
+
+
+This religion, if we may so denominate it, was founded by Nanak Shah in
+the fifteenth century. Nanak Shah was apparently an admirer, if not a
+follower, of Kabir, the Hindu reformer who established a sect which was
+essentially a compromise between Hinduism and Mohammedanism. This is the
+chief characteristic of Sikhism. It eschewed the polytheism and idolatry
+of Hinduism. It taught the unity of the Godhead, abolished caste, and
+enforced a high type of morality. It has, however, subsequently fallen
+under the blighting influence of surrounding Hinduism and has lost much of
+its distinctive excellence. So that, according to the census report of
+1891, “distinction between Sikhs and the rest of the Brahmanic community
+is mainly ritualistic.... The only trustworthy method of distinguishing
+this creed was to ask if the person in question repudiated the services of
+the barber and the tobacconist; for the precepts most strictly enforced
+nowadays (by the Sikhs) are that the hair of the head and face must never
+be cut, and that smoking is a habit to be avoided.”
+
+However manifestly the Sikh religion is going the common way of all the
+new faiths and religious revolts of India—the way of reabsorption into
+Hinduism—it has done much to create and foster a strong national feeling.
+Sikhs were cruelly persecuted by the then ruling Mohammedans. But the
+overthrow of the Moghul Empire gave the Sikhs territorial power and they
+possessed the only remaining political organization in the Punjab. So
+that, at the advent of the British, the Sikhs were a mighty power to be
+dealt with. They became the great power of North India; and during the
+Indian mutiny their loyalty to the British Raj was its salvation. At
+present the Sikh nation, warlike and valiant as ever, furnishes, perhaps,
+the most stalwart and invincible contingent for the Indian Army.
+
+
+
+
+(_g_) Hinduism.
+
+
+This is the religion of three-fourths of all the inhabitants of India and
+of nine-tenths of all those who are there reached by missionaries.
+
+What is Hinduism? It is a mixture of Brahmanism, Buddhism and
+Devil-worship. As we have seen, the supplanting faith of Buddha was
+finally absorbed, so far as India was concerned, into the old faith. When,
+later on, the Brahmans moved towards the southern part of the peninsula
+they entered the region occupied by, and largely given over to,
+demonolatry. According to its wont Brahmanism, as modified by Buddhism,
+sought not to overthrow the primitive cult of the people, but to absorb
+it. Thus, in South India today, more than three-fourths of the people are
+devil worshippers. And yet, with their demons, they have been accepted
+into the higher faith of the Aryan; and, according to their mood and
+preference, give themselves to the worship of Hindu gods or village
+demons. Worshipping in pure Hindu temples is to that people but a pastime,
+a mere holiday diversion; while the appeasing of the demons at their
+village shrines and under old trees in their hamlets is the most serious
+concern of their life. And yet all of them are regarded, and rightly
+regarded, as Hindus. Indeed, in the Hinduism of today, especially as found
+in South India, can be found living amicably together and without any
+apparent sense of incongruity or conflict the lowest type of fetishism, an
+ardent devil-worship, an engrossing ceremonialism, a worship of the higher
+Brahmanical deities, a thoroughgoing pantheism and a pure theism. I have
+witnessed in our district, side by side, a hideous fetish, a gross idol of
+a local demon, an image of Vishnu who is the best of Brahmanical gods,
+while in an adjacent hamlet lived families who belonged to none of these
+cults but who gave themselves to a belief in, and practice of, a vague
+theism which is farther removed from the fetishism of their neighbours
+than is their religion from the highest type of Christian teaching.
+
+Thus Hinduism may be viewed as an immense cloth of many colours; which
+colours have been patched together without any reference to harmony or
+consistency. In other words, that religion is a big mass of mutually
+inconsistent and undigested beliefs, practices and ceremonies. It has not
+only mutually antagonistic philosophies, it has also three different ways
+of salvation, 330,000,000 gods and as many laws and customs which, though
+binding as the laws of the Medes and Persians, are nevertheless,
+absolutely wanting in consistency and in unity of purpose and teaching. In
+the words of Sir Alfred Lyall,—“The general character of Indian religion
+is that it is unlimited and comprehensive, up to the point of confusion;
+it is a boundless sea of divine beliefs and practices; it encourages the
+worship of innumerable gods by an infinite variety of rites; it permits
+every doctrine to be taught, every kind of mystery to be imagined, any
+sort of theory to be held as to the inner nature and visible operation of
+the divine power.”
+
+It has been the wont of Brahmanism not to directly antagonize and
+overthrow the old and the opposing cults, but rather to absorb them. Note
+here its fundamental contrast with Christianity. It meets its rival with a
+smile of appreciation, then seeks to fraternize with it, after which it
+approves and appropriates and finally absorbs it.
+
+In the Madura District of South India, where I have lived, the Brahmans,
+upon their first arrival, found all the people given to the worship of
+their village demons. They said to them, practically,—“We do not wish to
+deprive you of your devil shrines and images and worship. We will take the
+leading demons which you worship and marry them to our great gods and then
+give to them a place in our pantheon and a part in our worship. Come ye
+also with them and we will welcome you into our temples and faith.” Thus
+“Meenatchi,” the old and the principal demoness of the primitive cult of
+that region, was married to the great god Siva and became the presiding
+goddess of the great Hindu temple of Madura; and all her old worshippers
+followed her into the new faith of Hinduism. So all those people are
+Hindus today. And yet they have not abated one jot of their interest in
+and practice of their demonolatry.
+
+That which may be regarded as the more strictly Brahmanical development
+and manifestation of Hinduism is divided, at present, into two great
+cults. These are Saivism, or the worship of Siva, and Vaishnavism, or the
+worship of Vishnu. These two cults, while not mutually antagonistic, are
+nevertheless entirely separate—their devotees, respectively, being
+satisfied with their own god and his incarnation and manifestations.
+
+The first god of the Hindu triad (Brahma, Vishnu and Siva)—has practically
+no shrines among Hindus today. His worship has been largely transferred to
+his so-called sons, the Brahmans; and Siva has, in the main, absorbed all
+his functions as creator. As it is only Vishnu, the preserver, and Siva,
+the destroyer and recreator that have anything to do with men, the Hindus
+devote themselves to these two only. Siva is the “great god,” the austere
+and terrible one whom the people fear. He is known chiefly through his
+phallic emblem, the _linga_, which emphasizes his creative activity.
+Vishnu is the benign god who has resorted to many incarnations whereby he
+might free the world of demons who were worrying and destroying our race.
+Siva has many manifestations; Vishnu alone has “descents” or incarnations,
+some of which were in brute, and some in human, form.
+
+These two cults obtain universally throughout India. Vaishnavism (the
+worship of Vishnu) has many popular sects which wield extensive influence
+throughout the country. The one established by Vallabha-Swami, in the
+sixteenth century, is a worship of Krishna and is given to the indulgence
+of the passions and is characterised by gross licentiousness.
+
+The sect founded by Chaitanya in the fourteenth century is one of the most
+celebrated, and is very popular in Bengal. It subordinates everything to
+faith (_bhakti_) even making this more important than caste.
+Contemplation, rather than ritual, was Chaitanya’s pathway to salvation
+and he gave supreme value to the virtue of obedience to the “guru” or
+religious guide.
+
+In South India the cult of the religious reformer, Ramanuja, who
+flourished in the twelfth century, has extensive popularity. He was a man
+of great thought, and his special type of Vedantic philosophy is much in
+vogue today. He proclaimed the unity of God under the name of Vishnu. He
+received converts from every caste. It is an interesting fact that nearly
+all, in the long list of religious reformers in India, took a position of
+hostility to the caste system. But it is also significant that none of
+these reform movements has persisted through the centuries in that
+attitude, but has fallen into line with orthodox Hinduism in absolute
+submission to the caste demon.
+
+“_Sakti_” worship has also attained great influence and extensive
+predominance in many parts of India. This is the worship of the _Sakti_ or
+the female half of the great deities of the land. The _Saktar_
+preëminently worship _Kali_, the goddess of blood, and the other consorts
+of Siva. It is a worship of power (“_Sakti_” means energy or power), and
+usually power of the maleficent type. It is perhaps the lowest form of
+Hinduism and easily lends itself to a gratification of the lowest passions
+of men. This _tantric_ cult (the _tantras_ are the sacred books of the
+Saktar) is the only one in modern Hinduism which indulges in bloody
+sacrifices—_Kali_ and her sisters being satisfied by blood as by nothing
+else. This attests the non-Aryan origin and character of this worship,
+inasmuch as Brahmanism, since the days of Buddha, abjures all bloody
+sacrifice.
+
+Let it not be supposed, however, from the above remarks, about the
+multiform and self-contradictory character of the amorphous thing called
+Hinduism, that it is therefore impossible for us to understand and measure
+its nature and power. For Brahmanism, through all ages, has not been
+without a definite tendency, an underlying philosophy and pervasive
+fundamental beliefs. It is indeed more a congeries of faiths than a simple
+religion, like Christianity. And yet, amid all its hosts of contradictions
+and ways of salvation and sects and cults there have sounded, as a
+diapason through all the centuries, the fundamental teachings of
+Vedantism. A few doctrines such as pantheism, transmigration, “karma,”
+“bhakti” and final absorption into the Supreme Soul are all but
+universally held by the people of all sects and divisions, however much at
+variance with these their peculiar beliefs may seem to be.
+
+The prominent staple of Hindu religious thinking in all ages has doubtless
+been Vedantism—that subtle form of pantheism which has charmed and
+bewildered not a few of the great minds of the Occident also. The
+paramount influence of this philosophy upon all religious thought and life
+in India is unmistakable today, as it has been through the centuries. Of
+this Max Müller says,—“If the people of India can be said to have now any
+system of religion at all ... it is to be found in the Vedanta philosophy,
+the leading tenets of which are known to some extent in every village....
+Nothing will extinguish that ancient spirit of Vedantism which is breathed
+by every Hindu from his earliest youth, and pervades, in various forms,
+even the prayers of the idolater, the speculations of the philosopher, and
+the proverbs of the beggar.”
+
+We may therefore, without hesitation, so far as Hinduism is concerned
+regard as philosophic Hinduism those basal doctrines and their corollaries
+which, from the earliest days, have been the stock in trade of all
+Indo-Aryan thinkers and at the same time the source and solvent of all the
+mysteries of their faith.
+
+By a study of these one may easily reach the heart of Hindus and of
+Hinduism and can weigh and measure the forces which enter into their
+religious life and thinking, and can compare them with the teachings and
+institutions of Christianity.
+
+This study will bring a twofold blessing to Christians of the West,
+especially to missionaries who have given themselves to the regeneration
+of India. It will give them a larger degree of respect for that great
+people of the East and a new appreciation for Hindu thought and religious
+speculation. We of the West have been imbued with too much of an
+intellectual arrogance and a spirit of contempt for “the benighted Hindu.”
+Even if we ever learned, we certainly have too easily forgotten, that
+many, many centuries ago—when our ancestors were grovelling in the lowest
+depths of primitive savagery—the rishis of India were engaged in perhaps
+the highest self-propelled flights of religious speculation the world has
+ever known and were working out a philosophy, or more correctly a system
+of ontology, which is today the wonder and admiration of Western savants.
+
+I argue for a study of those teachings which, though hoary with age, are
+today all-important as the foundation upon which the many-aisled temple of
+Hinduism is built and (if I may change the figure) as the cement which
+binds the whole structure together.
+
+A few years ago it was generally thought that Brahmanism was little else
+than the insane ravings of well-meaning, but unguided, or, worse still,
+misguided, denizens of darkness; the whole literature was considered a
+mass of intellectual and moral rubbish. How much the verdict of Western
+scholars upon this subject has changed during the last quarter of a
+century I need not mention. All men who have investigated the subject give
+today unstinted praise to the heart and intellect of those sages who
+produced much of the ancient religious literature of India. They will not
+endorse the statement of the great German philosopher who exclaimed, “In
+the whole world there is no study so beneficial and so elevating as that
+of the Upanishads. It has been the solace of my life—it will be the solace
+of my death.” And yet many claim that its truths are numerous and
+spiritually helpful. Hopkins writes(7):—“The sincerity, the fearless
+search of the Indic Sages for truth, their loftiness of thinking, all
+these will affect the religious student of every clime and age, though the
+fancied result of their thinking may pass without effect over a modern
+mind.” And Barth truly remarks(8):—“The religion of India has not only
+given birth to Buddhism and produced, to its own credit, a code of
+precepts which is not inferior to any other; but in the poetry which they
+have inspired there is at times a delicacy and bloom of moral sentiment
+which the Western world has never seen outside of Christianity. Nowhere
+else, perhaps, do we meet with an equal wealth of fine sentences.” Of
+their intellectual acumen Dr. Matheson says: “It is not too much to say
+that the mind of the West, with all its undoubted impulses towards the
+progress of humanity, has never exhibited such an intense amount of
+intellectual force as is to be found in the religious speculations of
+India.... These have been the cradle of all Western speculations; and
+wheresoever the European mind has risen into heights of philosophy, it has
+done so because the Brahman has been the pioneer. There is no intellectual
+problem in the West which had not its earliest discussion in the East; and
+there is no modern solution of that problem which will not be found
+anticipated in the East.” These words of the Scotch divine are doubtless
+strong; too strong, I think. And yet they may be serviceable, if they warn
+us against that proneness to depreciate the intellectual value and serious
+purpose of the religious books of that land. It is worse than useless to
+confidently descant upon the errors, inconsistencies, the follies and
+absurdities of these writings without acknowledging at the same time the
+profound thought, the deep spiritual yearning and the sublime poetic
+beauty, which characterize some portions.
+
+In this connection the question of the origin of Hinduism is important.
+
+It was formerly laid down as a postulate of the Christian’s belief that
+Hinduism is of the devil; and that, coming from below, it must be shunned
+as a study and denounced root and branch as a thing purely satanic. This
+theory has entirely given way to a more rational belief. The question
+whether the truths of Hinduism, with those of other ethnic religions, have
+filtered down from some primitive revelation and are the relics of a
+vanishing faith, divinely communicated to some of the earliest members of
+our race; or whether God has directly, from time to time, guided the
+thoughts and answered the deep yearnings of the soul of the Indo-Aryan, is
+one which is still discussed. But modern scholarship is practically of one
+voice in maintaining that God hath not left Himself without witness among
+the many nations of the earth,—a witness that has indeed been
+comparatively feeble—a revelation that is dim and starlike as compared
+with the noonday brightness of the Sun of Righteousness in the Christian
+religion. The day has come when the Christian must accept and believe that
+God has been dealing directly with this people through the many centuries
+of their history, leading them to important truths, even though their evil
+hearts and worse lives have caused them, in many cases, to “change the
+truth of God into a lie and worship and serve the creature more than the
+Creator.” Many of the truths which are imbedded in the religion of that
+land find their solution in no other hypothesis than this.
+
+This study of Hinduism will also lead us to realize the important truth of
+the many points of contact between that faith and our own. A knowledge of
+their sympathies cannot be of less importance than that of their
+antipathies. And this knowledge is indispensable to the Christian worker
+in India as it gives a new and a most direct way of approach to the Hindu
+heart, and a fresh and all-potent argument with them in behalf of
+Christianity.
+
+This process also best illustrates the method and Spirit of Christ. Dr.
+Robson aptly remarks that “while no religion has done more to overthrow
+other religions than Christianity, no religious teacher has said less
+against other religions than Christ. We have from Him only one short
+saying condemning the Gentiles’ aim in life, but not even one reflecting
+on the gods they believed in, or the worship they paid them. Was not this
+because He came not to destroy but to fulfill?”
+
+I can refer to only a few of these common points and belief in the two
+faiths.
+
+
+
+(_a_) Incarnation.
+
+
+These are the only two faiths which have exalted, to primal importance,
+this doctrine. In Christianity it is basal, and in later Brahmanism, or
+Hinduism, it has overshadowed nearly every other teaching. In a sense the
+all-pervasive pantheism of Brahmanism made a certain form of incarnation a
+necessity from the earliest days. The ancient Aryans could not rest
+satisfied with the Unknown and the Absolute of their Vedantism; so they
+speedily began to erect for their evergrowing pantheon an endless
+procession of emanations. But it was, probably, the phenomenal success of
+Gautama, and especially the posthumous influence of his life and example,
+that opened the eyes of the Brahmans and suggested to them the supreme
+need of an _avatar_ (“descent”), for the popularizing of their faith. And
+thus originated that vast system of descents, or incarnations, which have
+multiplied so greatly and developed so grotesquely all over the land. The
+common ground furnished by this doctrine to the two faiths is not
+adequately appreciated. This truth of incarnation, in its fundamental
+doctrinal bearing upon Hinduism, and in the strengthening of its hold,
+even until the present, upon the popular imagination and affection, should
+not go for nought in the mind of Christian critics, because of the content
+of the multitudinous descents, which is mostly grotesque, debasing and
+repulsive. They forget that the Christian doctrine of incarnation
+furnishes, perhaps, the best leverage with which the Christian missionary
+is to overturn the faith of that people, simply because the doctrine
+itself has been so popularized, even if debased, in India for many
+centuries. Christ should be none the less, yea the more, welcome to that
+land because the most popular god of the Hindu pantheon (Krishna) is also
+the leading incarnation of Vishnu.
+
+
+
+(_b_) Vicarious Atonement.
+
+
+In Christianity this is second in importance only to the doctrine of
+incarnation. In Brahmanism also it has maintained, from the first, a
+position of cardinal importance. In pre-Buddhistic days this found
+expression in sacrifices that were probably more numerous and more
+precious than those offered by any other people. This is partly shown by
+the fact that words used for sacrifice are more numerous in the Sanskrit
+than even in the Hebrew language. It is true that their idea of sacrifice,
+both as to its import and object, was different from ours or from that of
+the Israelites; and indeed their own ideas also varied at different times.
+Under the influence of Buddhism, sacrifice, as such, was practically
+abandoned; but the idea of atonement for sin, which was underlying them,
+they practically carried over into the doctrine of transmigration. For,
+however stiffly they contend that, through metempsychosis, the doctrine of
+_karma_ is realized and every soul atones for its own sin, it nevertheless
+remains true that the element of consciousness separates the person who
+sinned from him who suffers; and one becomes the involuntary atoner and
+the other the atoned for.
+
+
+
+(_c_) Spirituality.
+
+
+It may, to some, seem absurd to bring the two faiths into anything but the
+relationship of contrast in this particular, when it is remembered that we
+are confronted daily by a Hinduism which is as grossly formal,
+materialistic and sensual as any religion known in any land. But it is
+unnecessary to remind us of the fact that the literature of the faith of
+this people is, in some respects, far removed from the low life and ritual
+of the present day; and in no greater respect than in this which we are
+now considering. All students recognize in many writings, vedic and
+post-vedic, profound seriousness and a sometimes strange depth of
+spiritual apprehension coupled with an other-worldliness which, to the
+western mind, seems absurdly impractical. Indeed, the naturally mystical
+bent of the Hindu mind has been regarded, and, doubtless, rightly
+regarded, as one of the chief obstacles to a true and easy understanding
+of much that is in their sacred writings by the too practical Westerner.
+We should not be blind to the lofty height of spiritual thought which we
+occasionally, and the deep spiritual yearning which we frequently, are
+permitted to witness in their books. In evidence of this we need only to
+refer to the powerful hold which the _yoga_ system of philosophy and life
+has upon them. An intense meditativeness, a devotional ecstasy and an
+insight of true heavenly wisdom is the ideal of life to which the Hindu
+has been called from time very remote.
+
+
+
+(_d_) Eschatology.
+
+
+In Hinduism, as in Christianity, man is directed to look to a
+judgment-seat and a system of rewards and punishments in the world to
+come. While this doctrine again, in its development and detail, differs
+essentially from that of the Christian faith, it is well to call attention
+to it as a point of contact. It breathes the spirit of _karma_, which, in
+its retributive power, has been compared by some to the doctrine of
+heredity, and by others, to that of fate. _Karma_ demands the full future
+fruition of every act done in the body; and many re-births, with intervals
+of keener suffering and bliss in numerous hells and heavens, are the
+countless steps in the doleful fugue of emancipation—a process which is
+enough to appall any but the patient, stolid soul of a Hindu. And yet this
+weary detail of a very long and sisyphean effort to shake off this mortal
+coil and to enter into rest is worthy of the missionary’s attention, as it
+represents, perhaps, the most elaborate system of eschatology outside of
+the New Testament. It is also ethical in its character, and in its
+fundamental principles has chords which harmonize with those of the
+Christian doctrine.
+
+
+
+(_e_) The Doctrine of Faith.
+
+
+This doctrine maintains that, by devotion to a personal god, salvation is
+achieved. This idea separates this doctrine from, and apparently
+antagonizes, the prevailing philosophy of the land—Vedantism. This cult of
+_Bhakti_ is connected with Krishnaolatry, which is the worship of the most
+unworthy and licentious god of the Hindu pantheon.
+
+Of Vaishnavism, or the worship of Vishnu, in which the _bhakti_, or faith,
+doctrine prevails, Sir Monier Williams remarks:—“Notwithstanding the gross
+polytheistic superstitions and hideous idolatry to which it gives rise, it
+is the only Hindu system worthy of being called a religion. At all events
+it must be admitted that it has more common ground with Christianity than
+any other form of non-Christian faiths.” The basal truth of _bhakti_—that
+of supreme attachment to, or faith in, a personal god—could not fail of
+rousing within the devout lofty and stirring emotion. _Bhaktar_, _i.e._,
+those who have given themselves absolutely to this doctrine and make it
+the motive and inspiration of their lives, are oblivious to all other
+bonds, abjuring among themselves even caste and all its demands, and
+proclaiming the true oneness of the brotherhood of the faith among all the
+devotees of the same god.
+
+              [Illustration: Rock-Cut Temple, South India.]
+
+Thus we have today a large and vigorous class of Hindus who have
+subordinated every doctrine and practice of their religion to that of
+faith, or _bhakti_. I believe, with not a few illustrious scholars, that
+this doctrine traces its origin to Christianity. Like everything else
+which Hinduism had absorbed, it has been considerably transmuted in the
+process. It has been necessarily and greatly affected and degraded by the
+character of the gods who have been its objects. It has been debased by
+contact with idolatry and error, with superstition and sensuality. And yet
+we trace its lineaments to its lofty, divine origin, and hesitate not to
+say that it furnishes a common ground of a fundamental truth of which
+Christian missionaries have not yet sufficiently availed themselves in
+their work for this people.
+
+Hindus have also done not a little thinking in the elaboration of the
+doctrine of salvation. In their discussion as to the relative potency of
+divine grace and human agency in the salvation of man they became divided
+into two antagonistic schools, corresponding, very closely, to the
+Calvinistic and Arminian, among Christians—the _Tengaliar_ maintaining the
+“cat theory” and the _Vadagaliar_ the “monkey theory”; so called because
+one party holds that, just as the cat saves her kitten by seizing and
+carrying it away bodily, so God seizes and saves man without his own
+effort. This is the doctrine of absolute grace. The other party insists
+that the relation of the young monkey to its mother, whereby its rescue
+from trouble depends upon its own grasp, best represents the process of
+salvation in which man’s coöperation is necessary.
+
+They have also developed the doctrine of growth in grace sometimes in a
+very instructive way. The spiritual development from _saloka_ (in the same
+world with God) to _sāmīpa_ (in the divine presence) thence to _sārūpa_
+(in the divine image) and finally to _sāyujya_ (complete identity with the
+divine Being) bears, in some respects, a striking resemblance to the
+teaching of St. Paul, where he writes that Jesus was “made unto us wisdom,
+righteousness, sanctification and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30).
+
+In like manner they teach that, for the attainment of beatitude, it is
+necessary to pass through five stages—(1) that of _sānti_, quiet repose or
+calm and contemplative piety; (2) that of _dāsya_, the slave state—the
+surrender of the whole will to God; (3) that of _sakhya_, or friendship;
+(4) that of _vātsalya_, or filial affection; and (5) that of _mādhurya_,
+or supreme, all-absorbing love.
+
+I must refer briefly to only one other illustration of the probable
+influence of our religion upon the faith of India, and that is in its
+teaching on eschatology. The illustration is drawn from the tenth
+incarnation, _Kalki avatār_, of Vishnu. This incarnation is to take place
+hereafter, when Vishnu will come, at the close of the present _Kali yuga_,
+or iron age, and put an end to these growing evil times, destroying with
+them all the wicked and ushering in the new era of righteousness (_Satya
+yuga_) upon the earth. For this great work of the restoration and the
+renovation of all creation, he is to come seated upon a white horse with a
+drawn sword, blazing like a comet. Hindus at present look forward to this
+new incarnation as their future deliverer, when the sorrows and the
+depravity of this present, shall be swallowed up in the glories and joys
+of the future, age. The striking thing about this teaching is not the hope
+which it inculcates for the future; for that is practically a part of the
+Hindu conception of the succession of the ages of their time system.
+According to this the present era must yield to the coming good _yuga_,
+which must, in its turn, give way to the ages of lesser good and of evil,
+which again will go and come in their ever-changing cycle. What seems
+remarkable is the _form_ in which this idea is here clothed. The coming of
+the Deliverer upon a _Kalki_—a white horse—with his great message of
+universal destruction and deliverance, brings directly to our memory the
+Bible prophecy of Rev. 6:2; 19:11-16, and also brings us into touch with
+the belief of many Christians today as to the appearance and the work of
+the Son of Man at the great day of His Second Coming.
+
+The question arises as to how this _avatar_ originated. It evidently seems
+to be an afterthought and of no ancient date among the series of Vishnu’s
+descents. And following the ninth, or Buddha, _avatar_, which was clearly
+intended as a bait to Buddhists, and as a frank and full compromise with
+that hitherto supplanting and hostile faith, it seems natural to suppose
+that this tenth also came in the same way and with the same spirit as a
+palm leaf to another religion, even our own, whose prophetic words about
+the second coming of Christ could be so easily appropriated and so
+harmlessly adopted into the Hindu system. It thus introduced into their
+faith an element of future glory and triumph which the religion had not
+formerly possessed. Indeed this very element of aggression and conquest is
+one of the signs of its Western origin and Christian source.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               Chapter III.
+
+
+HINDUISM AND CHRISTIANITY CONTRASTED.
+
+
+In the previous chapter I have endeavoured to show and emphasize the
+teachings common to Christianity and Hinduism.
+
+But it must not be forgotten that if their consonances are neither few nor
+unimportant their dissonances are far more numerous and fundamental. They
+meet us at almost every point of our investigation and impress us with a
+sense of a vast contrast.
+
+We will now give ourselves to a brief study of these divergences.
+
+The two faiths differ essentially.
+
+
+
+
+1. In their Initial Conceptions.
+
+
+Their starting points are almost antipodal. This will seem evident when we
+study their views:
+
+(_a_) In reference to religion itself. Christianity is briefly and
+beautifully explained by its Founder (Luke 15) as a divine method of
+seeking and saving the lost. It is the expression of the Father’s love
+yearning for the return, and seeking the complete salvation, of the son.
+It is primarily and pervasively a “Thus saith the Lord”—a revelation from
+God manward. Hinduism on the other hand has been the embodiment of man’s
+aspirations after God. Wonderfully pathetic, beautiful and elevating these
+aspirations have been at times; and doubtless guided at points by Him whom
+they so ardently sought. They perhaps represent the highest reach of the
+soul in its self-propelled flight towards its Maker. It is true that
+orthodox Hindus variously describe the Vedas as eternal, as a direct
+emanation from Brahma and as a divine entity in themselves. They
+constitute the “Sruti”—“the directly heard” message of God to man. But the
+authors of the Upanishads, which are a part of _Sruti_, absolve man from
+the necessity of accepting the four Vedas and propound a way of salvation
+entirely separate from, and independent of, vedic prayers and ritual. The
+direct influence of the Vedas upon religious life and ritual in India
+today is practically _nil_; while that of the Upanishads, which are the
+_fons et origo_ of the all-potent philosophy, is felt in every Hindu life,
+however humble.
+
+This aspect of the two faiths is not unexpected when we remember:
+
+(_b_) Their very dissimilar conceptions of God. The monotheism of the one
+and the pantheism of the other are clear and uncompromising. They have
+stood for many centuries as representatives, to the world, of these very
+dissimilar beliefs. Christianity inherited from Judaism its passion for
+monotheism, and brings the “God of Israel” very near to our race as the
+infinitely loving Father. It has not only emphasized His personality but
+reveals, with incomparable power and tenderness, His supreme interest in
+our race and His loving purpose concerning it.
+
+On the other hand Hinduism derived its highest wisdom and deepest
+convictions concerning the Divine Being from the ancient rishis through
+the Upanishads. There they accepted, once for all, the doctrine of the
+Brahm (neuter)—the one passionless, immovable, unsearchable, ineffable
+Being who, without a second, stands as the source and embodiment of all
+real being.
+
+Barth truly remarks that “this is the most imposing and subtle of the
+systems of ontology yet known in the history of philosophy.” This
+inscrutable Being is the only _real_ existence, all else being illusion
+projected by ignorance. This doctrine of identity or nonduality
+(_advaitha_) lies at the foundation of all their religious thinking. This
+Being which is devoid of qualities (_nirguna_), because incomprehensible
+to man, can be of no comfort to him. In this respect the Hindu is an
+agnostic of a profound type.
+
+For this mystical philosophy one word of praise is eminently due. It is
+not to be confounded with that species of Western pantheism which is rank
+materialism—making God and the material universe convertible terms. Sir
+William Jones emphasized this difference—the difference between a system
+which, in all that it sees, sees God alone, and that which acknowledges no
+God beyond what it sees. One is the bulwark of materialism; the other its
+most uncompromising enemy. Whatever the defects of this philosophy of the
+Upanishads it must be confessed to be deeply spiritual.
+
+And yet in this very effort to conserve the spiritual and transcendental
+character of Brâhm the Aryan sage has covered Him with the dark robe of
+mysticism and pushed Him into a far off realm beyond human ken.
+
+So that the only intimations which man has of Him are confessedly false
+projection of ignorance. For all practical purposes this hypothetical
+deity—for the very existence of Brâhm is only assumed as a working
+hypothesis by the theosophist—is a nonentity to the worshipper. How can a
+being lend itself to a devout soul in worship when it is rigidly devoid of
+every quality that can inspire or attract the soul? This very fact has led
+the ordinary Hindu to seek and develop something else as an object of his
+devotion. Hence the polytheism of Brahmanism. Let it not be supposed that
+there is any antagonism between their pantheism and their polytheism. One
+is the natural offspring of the other. The numberless gods which today are
+supposed to preside over the destiny of the people, are but emanations,
+the so-called “play” of Brâhm. Properly speaking they are neither supreme
+nor possessed of truly divine attributes. Even the Hindu Triad—Brahma
+(masculine gender), Vishnu and Siva—are but manifestations of the delight
+of the eternal Soul to invest itself with qualities (_guna_). These three
+gods are no more real existences than are the myriad other children of
+illusion (_maya_) and ignorance (_avidya_) which constitute the universe.
+And as they had their existence, so will they find their dissolution, in
+the fiat of the Supreme Soul. India finds polytheism no more satisfying
+than it does pantheism. There is no more assurance of comfort in
+worshipping 330,000,000 gods, whose multitude not only bewilders but also
+carries in itself refutation to the claim of any one to be supreme, than
+there is in the yearning after an absolute, ineffable Being which cruelly
+evades human thought and definition. It is no wonder therefore that the
+growth of the Hindu pantheon is constant, and both follows, and bears
+testimony to, the craving of the human soul for a God who can satisfy its
+wants and realize its deepest longings.
+
+(_c_) Their theories of the universe are also divergent. According to the
+Bible the outer world is the creation, by God, out of nothing. To the
+Brahman of all times the idea of pure creation has seemed absurd. _Ex
+nihilo nihil fit_ is an axiom of all their philosophies. Whether it be the
+Vedantin who tells us that the material universe is the result of Brâhm
+invested with illusion, or the Sankya philosopher who attributes it to
+_prakriti_—the power of nature; or the Veisashika sage who traces it to
+eternal atoms; they all practically posit that it is eternal.
+
+Of course the Christian doctrine of creation from nothing does not, as the
+Hindu too often assumes, maintain that the universe is a result without a
+cause; for it teaches that God Himself, by the exercise of His sovereign
+will and omnipotence, is an all-adequate cause to all created things.
+
+If the Vedantin claims that creation is impossible, how can he at the same
+time believe that ideas have from time to time sprung up in the mind of
+Brâhm, which ideas themselves have put on illusion and appear to human
+ignorance as the universe? It is, to say the least, no easier for him,
+with his conception of Brâhm, to account for the origin of such ideas than
+it is for the Christian to trace the source of the material universe to an
+all-wise and omnipotent God. Nor does the Sankya philosopher, by
+practically denying God and positing the eternal existence of souls and
+_prakriti_, remove half the difficulties that he creates.
+
+(_d_) Again, the teachings of the two faiths concerning man are no less
+divergent. In the Bible man is represented as a son of God. He is fallen
+indeed, but with a trace, even in his degradation, of his Father’s
+lineaments. We follow him in his willful rebellion against his Father; he
+plunges into the lowest depths of sin. But we still recognise in him the
+promise of infinite and eternal possibilities of spiritual expansion and
+happiness. Indeed we find at work a divinely benevolent scheme through
+which he is to be ultimately exalted to heavenly places in Christ Jesus
+and made the heir of infinite bliss.
+
+On the other hand, Hindu Shastras represent man as mere illusion—the poor
+plaything of the absolute One. For man to assume and to declare his own
+real existence is, they say, but the raving of his ignorance (_avidya_).
+To the practical Western mind it seems almost impossible that a
+philosopher should be so lost in his philosophy as to aver that he, the
+thinker and father of his philosophy, has no _real_ existence—is only
+illusion, concerning which real existence can only be assumed for
+practical purposes. What must be said of the philosophy begotten by such
+an illusive being? Shall it not also be doomed to vanish with him into the
+nothingness whence he came and which he now really is, if he only knew it?
+Sir Monier Williams aptly remarks,—“Common sense tells an Englishman that
+he really exists himself and that everything he sees around him really
+exists also. He cannot abandon these two primary convictions. Not so the
+Hindu Vedantist. Dualism is his bugbear, and common sense, when it
+maintains any kind of real duality, either the separate independent
+existence of a man’s own spirit and of God’s spirit, or of spirit and
+matter, is guilty of gross deception.”
+
+Another conception regards the human soul (_jivatma_) as a part of the
+Supreme Soul. This theory adds small comfort or dignity to it when we
+remember that this whole of which it is declared a part is an intangible,
+unattractive Being—devoid of all qualities (_nirguna_). If the soul
+existed from eternity as a part of the divine Soul and will ultimately
+resume that interrupted existence, what value, ethical or otherwise, can
+be attached to that bondage of manhood which was thrust upon the soul (or
+was it voluntarily assumed?)? This part of deity called individual soul
+certainly cannot be improved by its human conditions; and the question is
+not—“How soon can I pass through this slough of despond,” but, “why was I
+thrust into it at all? Was it a mere sacred whim (_tiruvileiadal_) of
+Brâhm?”
+
+Moreover this view of human “self,” or soul, carries one out too far into
+the sea of transcendental metaphysics to be of any practical use,
+religiously. We know something of man—this strange compound of soul and
+body—and we are deeply interested in his history and destiny; the more
+deeply because we are included in this category.
+
+But who knows of the eternal soul—that part of the absolute—separate from
+human conditions and apart from all experiences of men? Is it not simply
+the dream of the philosopher, a convenient assumption to satisfy the needs
+of an impractical ontology? To magnify the soul apart from human life, and
+to interpret human life as the self’s lowest degradation and something
+which is to be shaken off as quickly as possible, can hardly be sound
+philosophy, and is certainly bad theology. It simply reduces this life
+into an irremedial evil, with no moral significance or spiritual value.
+
+This leads us to the second point of contrast:—
+
+
+
+
+2. Their Ultimate Aim or Goal.
+
+
+What do these two religions promise to do for those who embrace them? The
+work which Christianity proposes to itself is difficult and glorious. It
+takes fallen, sin-sodden, man and leads him out into a new life of
+holiness; it opens out to him a long and broad vista of life with an
+ever-enlarging, blissful, activity. Christ said that He came into the
+world that men might have life and have it abundantly. He came not only to
+save the lost but also to develop all the grand possibilities of the soul
+to their utmost, and to launch the human bark upon a voyage of everlasting
+life, which means unceasing growth in all its noblest qualities,
+activities and enjoyments.
+
+Hindu philosophy and faith, on the other hand, unite in commanding that
+human endowments be starved, qualities suppressed, activity of all kinds
+stayed, ambition and every other desire, even the noblest and purest,
+quenched. All the essential elements of life itself are to be mortified
+that the soul may, unhampered by its own entanglement, reach that
+consummation which is supposed to be final. And what is it? Who can tell?
+The Aryan philosopher himself stands mute in its presence. All that we can
+predicate of it is not life and happiness, according to any standard of
+human experience known or imagined. The idea that the individual soul will
+finally sink into and blend with the Absolute Being as a drop of water
+returns to and mingles with its mother ocean may seem plausible to the
+philosopher; but of such an hypothetical existence we know absolutely
+nothing and can expect nothing that would inspire hope and kindle
+ambition.
+
+In Hinduism there are heavens many and not a few hells. But unlike the
+places of reward and punishment connected with Christianity, they
+represent nothing final. They are more like the purgatory of the
+Catholics, and represent only steps in the progress of the soul towards
+emancipation.
+
+Concerning the general view of human life, its import and outcome, the two
+faiths are antipodal. Christianity is brightly optimistic. The future of
+every Christian is to be as the sun shining more and more until the
+perfect day. Unceasing progress and eternal expansion are held out before
+him. His is an heritage that will abide and will resound in an ever
+increasing anthem of praise throughout time and eternity. Nothing can
+occur hereafter to rob him of that crown of glory which is the gift of God
+and which is to result in likeness to Him.
+
+Hinduism, on the other hand, is essentially pessimistic. It teaches that
+human life is totally and irremediably evil. Every power of the soul must
+be exercised in the endeavour to shake off this terrible burden of
+separate human existence and escape all the conditions of this life. That
+is the only relief possible. To the Hindu the question so often discussed
+in Christian lands—“Is life worth living?”—has no interest, since it has
+but one answer possible. And even if the Indian sage forgets his present
+conditions and pessimism long enough to gaze down the long and dismal
+vista of numberless births to the final consummation (_Sayujya_)—the final
+union with God—he finds in that nothing which the Christian does not
+discover in tenfold richness and beauty in the Bible. To be partaker of
+the Divine Nature is a blessed reality to the Christian without his
+forfeiting, in the least, the dignity of self-identity and the glory of
+separate personal consciousness. To have the “life hid with Christ in
+God”; to be able triumphantly to exclaim—“I live; yet not I, but Christ
+liveth in me”; to experience the blessedness and power of abiding in
+Christ and to realize the answer to Christ’s own prayer to the
+Father—“that they also may be in us”—all this is the joy and hope of the
+Christian in a manner and to a degree utterly impossible to the Hindu
+whose union with the supreme spirit is the loss and end of self, including
+all those faculties which are capable of enjoyment.
+
+Looking from another standpoint, we perceive that the aim of the religion
+of Christ is the banishing of sin from the life and the establishing of
+character. Sin is the dark background of Christianity. It explains its
+origin and reveals its universality. Its whole concern is with the
+emancipation of man from the presence and power of sin. To the Vedantin,
+on the other hand, sin, in the Christian sense of it, is an impossibility.
+Where God is all and all is God there can be no separate will to
+antagonize the divine will. Monism necessarily, in the last analysis,
+carries every act and motive back to the supreme Will and establishes an
+all-inclusive necessitarianism which is fatal to human freedom; and it
+therefore excludes sin as an act of rebellion against God. Much is made of
+sin, so called, in the Hindu system, as we shall presently see; but
+nowhere is more care needed than here that we may distinguish between
+ideas conveyed by this word in these two faiths. In Christianity the
+ethical character of sin is emphasized. It is described as a thing of
+moral obliquity and spiritual darkness. According to the Upanishads the
+only defect of man is an intellectual one. He is in bondage to ignorance.
+Plato made ignorance the chief source of moral evil and proposed
+philosophy as a remedy for the malady. The Vedantin differs from the Greek
+philosopher only in his more absolute condemnation of (_avidya_) ignorance
+as the mother of all human ills. Remove this—let a man attain unto a true
+knowledge of self, of the fact that he has no _real_ separate existence
+and is one with the Supreme Soul—and he becomes thereby qualified for his
+emancipation and ends his long cycle of births. Moreover, in the
+polytheism of the Puranas and in the laws and customs of Manu sin
+generally means only ceremonial defilement and the violation of customs
+and usages.
+
+Hinduism, therefore, has never addressed itself to the task of helping man
+as a _sinner_—of regenerating his heart, of establishing within him that
+beautiful thing known in Christian lands and philosophies as a well
+rounded, symmetrical and perfect character. For many reasons and in many
+ways it has aimed at a very different consummation in man from that
+consistently sought by Christ and His religion.
+
+
+
+
+3. The Agency and Means Recognized and Appealed to by those Faiths
+Respectively.
+
+
+By what power and instrumentality are the above ends to be sought and
+attained? They will be, doubtless, quite as divergent as the aims
+themselves were found to be.
+
+In Christianity God Himself is the agent who works out its scheme of
+salvation. He entered, through infinite condescension, into human life and
+relations in the Incarnation. He wrought, in the days of His flesh, the
+redemption of our race—a work which finds its climax in His atoning death.
+In the person of the Holy Spirit He is working and bringing to full
+fruition, in the hearts and lives of men, the redemption which He wrought.
+
+Into this, man enters not as an efficient cause of his own redemption. He
+cannot atone for his past, nor has he the assurance within himself for the
+future. Hence the atoning sacrifice of Christ and the indwelling of the
+Spirit of God which becomes in him a source of peace, of power and of
+hope. Yet, in this divine work, man is neither passive nor apathetic. In
+the exercise of saving faith he not only appropriates the works and gifts
+of God but also enters into full and active harmony and coöperation with
+God in his own regeneration and salvation. So that the Apostle Paul aptly
+urges the Philippian Christians (Phil. 2:12) to “work out your own
+salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God which worketh in you both
+to will and to work for His good pleasure.”
+
+How different is the picture presented to us by the Hindu Shastras of the
+means of human redemption—a picture, however, consonant with the aims
+which they have set before themselves to accomplish for man. The first and
+all-present fact of this faith is the terrible loneliness and isolation of
+man in the great struggle of life. His destiny is in his own hands, and he
+must fight single-handed against a thousand odds in the awful battle for
+emancipation.
+
+_Karma_ is the word used to express this thought which has possessed the
+Hindu mind from the earliest days to the present. This word may be
+translated “works,” and means the acts by which the soul determines its
+own destiny. In Vedic times the all-powerful works were sacrifice and
+ritual. In the Upanishads they are meditation and self-mortification.
+Today they are ceremonial, with works of charity, self-renunciation or
+religious mendicancy generally added.
+
+In pre-Buddhistic days sacrifice abounded in Brahmanism; and it grew to
+such proportions that the revolt headed by Gautama and incarnated in
+Buddhism became universal. But vicariousness was largely wanting as an
+element in, and as a cause of, their sacrifices. They were rather offered
+with a view to nourish the gods and as a means of acquiring power. He who
+sacrificed a hundred horses was said to gain thereby even larger power
+than Indra himself possessed—a power which enabled him to dethrone this
+god of the heavens. Such was the power said to inhere in sacrifice that
+the gods themselves combined to prevent men from the practice lest they
+should rise to larger power than themselves! With the triumph and
+subsequent absorption of Buddhism into Brahmanism the latter abandoned its
+sacrifices and accepted the Buddhistic emphasis upon _Karma_, and doomed
+every soul to the tread-mill of its own destiny. To every human word, deed
+or thought, however insignificant, there is fruit which must be eaten by
+the soul.
+
+It is claimed for this doctrine that it well emphasizes the conservation
+of moral force. Christianity also conserves, to the last, moral force; not
+however by insisting upon man bearing himself the whole burden, but by
+enabling him to cast the burden upon the Lord who graciously offers to
+bear the load of human guilt belonging to every soul.
+
+Another word in India which is synonymous with large power and merit is
+_Yoga_. It is inculcated in the _Yoga_ philosophy and is supposed to stand
+for a high mental discipline which speedily qualifies one for absorption
+into the Deity. It is manifested in the form of abstract meditation and
+austerity—an austerity embodied in asceticism and self-mortification. From
+early times this method has been held high in honour, and today is
+universally esteemed as the most powerful and speedy boat wherewith to
+cross the sullen stream of human existence. The grand object of _Yoga_ is
+to teach how to concentrate the mind—an object based upon the idea that
+the great and sole need of man is not moral and spiritual regeneration,
+but more light, _i.e._, a clear, intellectual apprehension of things. Not
+only is this basis of philosophy false in supposing that such intellectual
+gymnastics can finally exalt and save a soul, it is also radically
+defective in its general rules and practical results. No one who has
+studied the childish rules which are prescribed to the Yogis, or has
+observed in India many of even the better type of Yogis can fail to be
+impressed with the degradation to mind and morals which is indissolubly
+connected with it. Barth’s observation on the processes of _Yoga_ is
+eminently true. “Conscientiously observed,” he says, “they can only issue
+in folly and idiocy; and it is, in fact, under the image of a fool or an
+idiot that the wise man is often delineated for us in the _Puranas_ for
+instance.”(9)
+
+Meditation upon the Divine Being and upon self is a supreme duty
+inculcated by Christianity. Here God is a Personality upon whom the mind
+can be centred and find rest and exaltation. The self also is conceived as
+a being with a separate and infinitely high destiny marked out before it.
+Concentrated thought, deep emotion and lofty purpose, in view of these
+objects, is supremely profitable. But what is there left worthy of thought
+for the Vedantist _Yogi_ when the Divine Being is the unknowable and the
+Yogi himself the deluded child of (_Maya_) illusion and (_avidya_)
+ignorance—those twin enemies to all true and worthy knowledge? It cannot
+be elevating to detach the mind from things worldly and attach it to
+nothing!
+
+Incarnation, as we have seen above, has in later times become a popular
+doctrine in India. The _avatars_ (“descents”) of members of the Hindu
+pantheon, especially of Vishnu, the second member of the Triad, wield a
+large influence in the religious life of the masses. Yet the doctrines
+should, by no means, be regarded as identical or even similar in Hinduism
+and Christianity. It should be remembered that in Hinduism it is believed
+and magnified by those who also hold the law of _Karma_ as supreme. There
+is hardly a Vaishnavite and Krishnaolater who does not believe firmly that
+his destiny is writ large upon his forehead—that nothing that this or any
+god may do can affect his _adrishta_ which is that felt but unseen power
+working out the _Karma vivaka_, or fruition of works, done by him in
+former births. This belief directly antagonizes incarnation from the
+Christian standpoint, where it appears as God’s mighty instrument of grace
+to man. Not so from the Hindu standpoint. The incarnations of Vishnu are
+referred to in their _Shastras_ “as consequences of deeds which the god
+himself had performed. One was the fruit of sins he had committed; another
+of a curse which had been pronounced upon him.” And yet they are doubtless
+frequently referred to as undertaken with a view to benefit and help our
+race. If such was their intention it is difficult to see how that benefit
+could be any other than racial and temporary; for there is no intimation
+in any of them of its being a means for the spiritual uplifting, or moral
+regeneration, of one human soul.
+
+There is no finality of blessing supposed to be in any Hindu incarnation;
+and it would be sacrilege to compare the character of any one of them with
+the wonderful incarnation of Jesus. It is not so much that many of them
+appear as fish, fowl and beast, and as such are devoid of moral aim and
+efficiency; not a few are immoral, some of them, like Krishna,
+representing the worst type of sensuality and moral obliquity. Such
+examples, in the popular mythology of the land, have done, and are doing,
+inexpressible harm to the people and the country. “Like God like people”;
+and when the god is highly popular and conspicuously immoral the result
+will be correspondingly great.
+
+In connection with the doctrine of _avatar_ has arisen the well-known
+_bhakti marga_—“the way of faith.” Many believe that the latter was the
+source of the former and that both were affected by Christian teaching. In
+any case they are closely connected. Among many this way of love and
+devotion to individual gods has gained preëminence over the other two ways
+of salvation—knowledge (_gnana marga_) and works (_Karma-marga_)—though it
+should not be forgotten that _bhakti_ itself is regarded as a work of
+merit and is by no means synonymous with Christian faith. Yet it must be
+confessed, as we have seen above, that Hinduism comes nearer, at this
+point than at any other, to touching the religion of Jesus.
+
+The blindness of this faith is also a serious objection to it. To the
+_bhaktan_ “faith is the great thing.” It matters not how hideous, morally
+and spiritually, the object of faith may be, _bhakti_ will triumphantly
+vindicate itself in the ultimate salvation of the soul. “Repose faith in
+the idols, in ceremonial observances, in ascetic performances, in all that
+you religiously do, and blessing will rest upon you.” This is the
+_bhaktan’s_ creed; it is essentially the teaching of the “Divine
+Song”—Bhagavad-Gita. And it is this which has so powerfully helped the
+moral and spiritual degeneracy of India during the past few centuries. Men
+have attached themselves absolutely to gods whose mythology, detailed in
+the _Puranas_ and _Tantras_, is a narrative of lust and of moral
+crookedness, devotion to which can mean only moral contamination and
+spiritual death. Such a faith, in its nature and results, can only be
+contrasted with a loving devotion to the incomparably holy and lovely
+Jesus.
+
+
+
+
+4. The Processes of These Two Religions.
+
+
+In other words we inquire, in what manner do they propose to attain unto
+their respective ends?
+
+Christianity brings man into the new, divine life through the narrow gate
+of a new birth. He stands justified before God and, under the influence of
+the Holy Spirit, he begins that course of spiritual development which
+steadily progresses towards perfection in truth and holiness. He,
+“beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord is changed into the same
+image from glory to glory even as by the spirit of the Lord.” And in the
+fullness of his acquired, or divinely bestowed, powers he passes through
+the gate of death, once for all, to enter upon the full glories of eternal
+life beyond.
+
+In Hinduism _metempsychosis_ is the great process. “As the embodied soul,”
+says the Bhagavad-Gita, “moves swiftly on through boyhood, youth and age,
+so will it pass through other forms hereafter.” This doctrine is
+universally regarded as the all-potent solvent of human ills and the
+process which alone can lead to ultimate rest. In transmigration the soul
+is supposed to pass on from body to body in its wearisome, dismal
+progress, towards emancipation. The bodies in which it is incarcerated
+will be of all grades, according to the character of the life in the
+previous births, from the august and divine body of a Brahman down to a
+tenement of inorganic, lifeless rock. From ancient times this weary
+process of working out the law of _Karma_ has seized upon the imagination
+and wrought itself into the very being of the people of India; so that
+today it is the universal way of salvation believed and taught by the
+Vedantin, accepted with assurance by the idolater, and the one great
+bugbear in the mind of even the common coolie.
+
+This doctrine has its roots in Vedantism and is an essential part of it.
+The Brahman theosophist taught that all souls emanated from Brâhm and must
+return to their source along the way of metempsychosis. All acts, words
+and thoughts find their exact reward in future births. If a man steals a
+cow he shall be reborn as a crocodile or lizard; if grain, as a rat; if
+fruit, as an ape. The murderer of a Brahman endures long-suffering in the
+several hells and is then born again in the meanest bodies to atone for
+his crime. According to Manu the soul might pass “through ten thousand
+millions” of births. The passageway to absorption is through Brahmanhood
+only. Transmigration is the doom of all others.
+
+The prevalence of this doctrine in India is one of the saddest facts
+connected with its life. It is sombre and depressing in the extreme and
+robs the mind of a good portion of the small comfort which the idea of
+absorption might otherwise bring to it. Though the doctrine has found a
+footing among other nations at different periods in their history, nowhere
+else has it prevailed so long and exercised such a mighty influence over
+high and low as it has in that land.
+
+The doctrine is based upon a hypothetical identity of soul in different
+successive bodies—a hypothesis which can never be proved, and which
+contradicts the universal consciousness. Until that erratic Englishwoman,
+Mrs. Besant, appeared, no one claimed to possess the first intimation,
+through consciousness or memory, of a previous existence in another body.
+Ancient rishis and a few others were said by _others_ to have possessed
+it. Strange, if such a re-incarnation were a fact, that none has ever been
+assured of it by any other agent than the philosopher in his search after
+truth. Stranger still that men in such countless millions should hang
+their whole destiny upon so rotten a cord—so unethical a theory—as is here
+involved. Why should any moral being be put through a course of
+discipline, or be punished, for a past of which he has no knowledge? To
+inflict a punishment for any conduct or thought to which the memory does
+not bear evidence, nor conscience furnish assent, nor the whole realm of
+conscious experience reveal a trace, is both unethical and in violation of
+the deepest laws of being.
+
+Nor does it appear how this process, as a method of discipline, can
+achieve what is expected of it. It is maintained that, ultimately, all the
+myriads of separate souls will cross over this terrible stream of human
+existence and reach the further shore of emancipation. But what aptitude,
+or efficiency, there can be in metempsychosis itself to reach this end is
+not apparent. That the soul should ultimately reach beatitude rather than
+absolute, irremedial, degradation through this process is merely
+_assumed_, and that without adequate foundation in reason.
+
+In view of the well-known power of sin and its tendency to settle down,
+through habit, into a permanent type of character; in view of the
+well-attested scientific doctrine of heredity—a doctrine which easily
+accounts for and explains every semblance of truth in transmigration—it
+seems incredible that any soul in India could, through transmigration,
+finally emerge out of the quicksand of sin and corruption which surround
+and overwhelm it, especially when it is assumed that it has already passed
+through many births.
+
+It should also be remembered that, at its basis, this doctrine has its
+face turned, with equal repugnance, against all sorts of work. Desire of
+every kind, good as well as evil, is to be suppressed inasmuch as it is
+the source of action, and action must bear its fruit, the eating of which
+prolongs existence which, itself, is the burden to be removed. The
+question is not how to become good and to overcome evil in life, but how
+to shake off all personality. And this is accomplished, they say, by
+abandoning all action and suppressing all desire whatever. How this can
+result in holiness and lofty character is not evident. It is true that a
+certain sort of “good works” have large value in this process of
+emancipation. But quiescence rather than character is the thing
+emphasized. Noble thoughts and aspirations are as fatal as are the basest
+to immediate deliverance—they all disturb that equilibrium of the soul
+which ushers it into its final rest. “The confinement of fetters is the
+same whether the chain is of gold or of iron.”
+
+It is doubtless true that this doctrine has some elements of truth,
+otherwise it could not have survived and thriven as it has. It bears
+consistent testimony to the immortality of the soul. It also teaches the
+important truth that the soul must receive the full reward of all its
+deeds in a body. It is also, in a certain way, a response to that deep
+instinct of justice which is a part of human nature. But these cannot
+atone for its fundamental defects and errors. Some claim that its highest
+merit is that it is a powerful deterrent from sin and incentive to virtue.
+Beyond the remarks made above the all-sufficient refutation to such a
+statement is the present condition of the Hindu race itself. If any people
+on earth, more than others, sin with “fatal facility” and seem perfectly
+oblivious to the character and consequences of their deeds they are the
+descendants of the rishis of old and the heirs, in rich abundance, of this
+and its cognate doctrines. To judge this doctrine by its results in India
+is to pronounce it an error and a curse.
+
+
+
+
+5. The Ideals of the Two Faiths.
+
+
+No religion can regenerate or exalt men simply through a code of moral
+laws, or even through impassioned appeals to a higher life and threats of
+eternal punishment. There must be, above and beyond all this, a life which
+stands boldly forth as an example and inspiration to good men. The noble
+example of the royal Gautama did more perhaps than any other thing to
+disseminate Buddhism throughout India. His supreme renunciation and his
+loyalty to truth exalted him before his disciples and transformed him into
+an ideal for Buddhists of future ages. This also is a preëminent
+characteristic of Christianity. It is the religion of the Christ. _He_
+stands supreme in it—not merely as its Founder, Expounder and Life. He is
+also the embodiment of His own teaching, the ideal of life and conduct
+which He has brought to men. His command to all is not—“Do this or that”;
+but “Follow Me”—not, “Believe in this truth or another,” but “Believe in
+Me,” who am “the way, the truth and the life.” For these twenty centuries
+He has stood before the world as the incomparable, unapproachable, perfect
+ideal which has wrought more for the regeneration of the world than all
+other forces put together.
+
+Do we find any counterpart to this in Hinduism? Do we find any life or
+example which stands related to it as Buddha’s to Buddhism or as
+Mohammed’s to Mohammedanism, or, even in a slight degree, as Christ’s to
+Christianity? None whatever. Starting with the absolute Brâhm, we have
+seen this Supreme Soul shrouded in unfathomable, unapproachable darkness.
+We descend to the divine emanations of this eternal Soul and search in
+vain among the millions of beings which constitute the Hindu pantheon to
+find one who could become an ideal of life and an inspiration to the soul
+struggling against sin. “Godlike life could scarcely start from its
+examples of incarnations; for none of their lives is superhuman in
+holiness. Even Rama, the most blameless character in Hindu mythological
+literature, is by no means perfect; while the most popularly worshipped
+incarnation committed deeds so vile that even the narrator warns his
+hearers not to take him for their example. ‘Listen to the story of Hari,
+but do not think of doing his deeds,’ he says.”
+
+We look again at the sages and heroes of India with the hope that we may
+possibly find one who stood conspicuous among others as the perfect type
+of character and the helper of those struggling after a better and holier
+life. Here again we are wofully disappointed, though it must be confessed
+that there are loftier types of goodness and of self-discipline among them
+than we found among the gods. Thus, with no worthy ideal of life before
+them and no one to inspire them to better things, the wonder is that men
+in India have not descended to a lower level than they have. It is perhaps
+this very reason that has discouraged them and has led them to strive to
+attain unto beatitude, not by perfecting, but by destroying humanity. The
+renunciation and loss, rather than the realization, of self has thus
+become their aim and ambition. Perhaps it is for this same reason also
+that the votaries of this faith have constructed one of the most elaborate
+systems of ceremonial and ritual that the world has ever witnessed;
+whereby, in the absence of a high ideal and of a divine inspiration, the
+whole life from birth even until after death, may be directed and
+protected from evil.
+
+
+
+
+6. The Credentials of the Two Faiths.
+
+
+Each has its Scriptures in which are found its original teachings
+including a declaration of its source and message to man. Beyond this
+general statement very little can be predicated of these two in common.
+The theories of their inspiration are dissimilar. In the Bible there is no
+theory of inspiration taught. Its testimony to its own divine origin is
+indirect rather than direct. And yet the evidence, both internal and
+external, that the Bible was written by men under Divine guidance and
+inspiration is unmistakable and convincing. Whether we have regard to its
+prophetic utterances, its record of miracles, its plan of salvation, its
+delineation of the incomparable life and character of Jesus Christ; or
+whether we behold its marvellous power among men of all classes and of all
+countries and tongues—all that pertain to it point unmistakably to its
+divine origin.
+
+Nor can any one fail to appreciate the beauty and sublimity of some of the
+Vedic hymns of the Hindus or the profound depth of the philosophic reach
+of the Upanishads, those sublime “guesses at truth,” or the great
+excellence of the Bhagavad-Gita which is the gem of all Hindu literature.
+And yet the puerilities of many and the obscenity of others of the Vedic
+songs and prayers are well-known. So are the strange vagaries and the
+rambling character of many parts of the Upanishads. And as for the
+Bhagavad-Gita it is simply a dialogue whose gist is the argument of
+Krishna—“the Supreme God”—to urge the tender-hearted and the
+conscience-smitten Arjuna to slay his relatives in war. Its argument is
+that no evil which one man may do to another is of any moment, since he
+cannot touch his soul which is eternal and beyond the reach of any human
+power! In the destiny of a soul what can the destruction of one of its
+bodies signify? This is an argument which is subversive of morality and of
+social order.
+
+When one leaves these earlier scriptures of Brahmanism and takes up the
+later productions—the _Puranas_ and Tantras—he comes into a very different
+atmosphere, most of which is morally pestilential and spiritually
+degrading. The ascription of divine inspiration and special heavenly
+guidance in the production of such literature is nought else but
+blasphemy. To pass over from the study of the Bible, with its transcendent
+beauty, its perfect ethics, its heavenly spirit, its Divine Saviour and
+way of salvation, to the Scriptures of India, especially the more recent
+parts, is to exchange the pure air of heaven for the charnel house.
+
+The “divine brevity” of the Bible is one of its most striking features.
+Few things could impress one with the heavenly source of this Book more
+markedly than its wonderful omissions.
+
+How very different when we examine the countless tomes of the sacred
+literature of India! If the salvation of a soul depended upon the reading
+of even a hundredth part of these, who then could be saved? Their very
+multiplicity and their voluminous character debar any man, however
+learned, from an acquaintance with more than a small fraction of them.
+Moreover, among learned pandits of today the _Smriti_ (traditions) are
+more frequently quoted as authority, and they wield a larger power over
+the life of the people, than the _Sruti_ (revelation) itself.
+
+In the Christian Bible we are permitted to see a _progressive_ revelation.
+From age to age, and from page to page, we see new glimpses of truth and
+are attracted by the divine light whose illumination grows ever brighter
+from Genesis to Revelation. This is what we should have expected from a
+God-inspired book. We should have looked forward to a gradual transition
+from the starry midnight of the far-off past to the rising, in Christ, of
+the sun of righteousness with healing in His wings.
+
+In Hindu literature this process is reversed. The surest, I may almost
+say, the only, evidence we have of divine guidance in the production of
+this literature is to be found among the earliest productions. There we
+see earnestness of purpose combined with heavenly aspiration and deep
+searching after truth. Subsequent to this we see the light vanishing and
+earnestness giving place to triviality of thought, to the ravings of
+superstition, to the inanities of ceremonialism and to the laws of social
+and religious bondage. All this progress downward is in direct ratio to
+our distance from Vedic times.
+
+What could be more conclusive proof of the human source and direction of
+these prolific writings? Educated Hindus are sensible of this fact. They
+constantly hark back to the Vedas, to the Upanishads and to the
+Bhagavad-Gita, conscious of the fact that these represent the high
+water-mark of their faith and literature.
+
+
+
+
+7. Other Distinguishing Traits.
+
+
+These are not a few, and they aid in presenting the two faiths in bold
+relief.
+
+(_a_) Their attitude towards the individual and Society. Nowhere are they
+more antipodal to each other than here. Christianity is preëminently a
+faith which exalts the individual. It presents, with marked clearness, his
+rights and responsibilities. His liberty of thought, of belief and of
+action, is fundamentally sacred and to be conserved at all hazards.
+
+Hinduism is the staunchest foe of individual freedom. It concedes no right
+to the individual which others are bound to respect. It has erected above
+the individual, and in such a way as to overshadow him entirely, the
+stupendous caste system. And it has subordinated his every right and
+privilege to the whim of this demon caste. Man is its abject slave—cannot
+swerve one inch from its dictates; and these reach down to the smallest
+detail of his life. If the vast majority of the members of a caste were
+high in their morals and strict in their integrity and pure in their
+beliefs, the aid to a higher life which this system might render to the
+individual would, in small part, compensate for its destruction of his
+manly independence. But caste discipline directs itself to petty forms and
+observances and to the perpetuation of mean jealousies rather than to the
+development of character.
+
+In India alone is caste a religious institution. The Brahman merged the
+individual in the corporate body, thus perfecting his bondage; and he set
+class against class to prevent the lower from rising and to make national
+union impossible. Men were said to have been created differently even as
+different kinds of animals; to bring them together is as unnatural as it
+is sinful.
+
+Thus, every man within the pale of this religion has his social, as his
+religious, status fixed unchangeably for him before his birth; and woe be
+to him who tries to shake off this bondage, or even in a small degree to
+kick against the pricks. No better system than this has been devised under
+heaven to rob man of his birthright of independence and self-respect. And
+the population of India bears, in its character and conduct, ample
+testimony to the truth of this statement.
+
+(_b_) Connected closely with this is another aspect.
+
+The religion of Jesus fosters progress. Not only do we behold Christian
+nations the most progressive, we also find that as this faith obtains in
+its purity, so do its votaries enjoy the large spirit and results of
+progress, both in religion, science, the arts and in civilization. In
+India, on the other hand, conservatism is a fetish and custom a divine law
+of conduct. In the West the question asked, as men approach a certain line
+of action, is whether it be reasonable? Among Hindus the invariable
+inquiry is,—is it customary?—did our forefathers practice it? This again
+is the legitimate product of the caste system. It conserves and deifies
+the past. It never tolerates a question as to the wisdom of the ancients.
+The code of Manu, which is the source and supreme authority for this
+system, has done more to stereotype and degrade social and religious life
+in India than has any other code in all the history of other lands.
+
+(_c_) Another marked feature of the religion of Jesus is its
+exclusiveness. It claims to be the only way of salvation. Not that it is
+unwilling to acknowledge the truths which are found in other faiths. While
+it recognizes such, it maintains that they are but broken lights of the
+Truth which it presents in all its full-orbed glory. It reveals Christ as
+the fulfillment of the good and pious of all nations, and His revelation
+as the realization of all truth wherever found. But as a means of
+salvation it stands alone, and will brook no rivalry nor accept divided
+homage.
+
+In Hinduism, on the other hand, we see tolerance incarnate. It is true
+that the caste system lends itself readily to intolerance, that some of
+the most refined and cruel forms of persecution are conducted by it
+against Christians today. Yet in itself this faith has a genius for
+toleration. It does not go out of its way to attack other faiths. On the
+contrary it generally reaches forward the flag of truce and peace to them.
+It willingly appropriates much of their teaching and ritual. It placed in
+its pantheon its arch-enemy, Buddha, and has dignified many of the demons
+of the primitive cult of South India in the same way. And herein lie the
+subtle power and supreme danger which inhere in it to other faiths.
+
+(_d_) It must also be remembered that the faith of India is an ethnic
+faith, with no ambition to reach to other peoples beyond that peninsula.
+This faith has a hundred ways of expelling and excommunicating its members
+and only one doubtful door by which it may receive outsiders, namely, by
+the formation of a new caste.
+
+Christianity, on the other hand, is preëminently a missionary religion. It
+claims to be the universal faith. The last commandment of the Lord upon
+earth and the first work of the Holy Spirit upon His descent was to
+propagate the faith and to carry it to many lands and peoples. Hinduism is
+conserved by its social organism of caste; Christianity, by its leavening
+influence upon all that comes in contact with it, and the outreaching
+power of its life within.
+
+(_e_) Another difference is observable in the fact that while Christianity
+is always held as a system of saving truth to be believed, Hinduism, in
+its acceptance, does not involve the necessary belief of any doctrine or
+system of doctrine. It is well understood that a man of any belief, or of
+no belief, may be a genuine and orthodox Hindu provided he observes caste
+rules and ceremonies. It has been more than once insisted upon that a man
+may accept Christ as his Saviour and His religion as his firm belief and
+still remain a Hindu if he only submit to the demands of caste. Not a few
+Hindus are trying to live up to this strange dual system today! And I fear
+some native Christians have not got rid of the same delusion.
+
+(_f_) There is also a marked difference in the moral standards of the two
+faiths. In a certain sense the moral code of Brahmanism, at its best, is
+lofty if not perfect. It enjoins a man not to lie, not to steal, not
+injure another, to be just, brave, hospitable and self-controlled. Some
+savage races inculcate, with more or less severity, the same moral
+lessons. But to Hindus as to savages these injunctions have represented
+the moral code; and whoever, among them, attains unto these, mostly
+negative, virtues, is deemed worthy of praise. In a sense the ten
+commandments communicated through Moses, obtain among Christians and are
+enjoined upon them today. But they, rather than represent the Christian’s
+ideal, indicate only the low water mark of his moral requirements. To say
+of a Christian gentleman today that he does not steal, or does not lie, is
+rather an insult than a compliment, since it assumes that he possesses
+only what is now considered a very elementary form of morality, such as
+the lower classes and children are supposed to practice. It is only as we
+follow Jesus Christ and sublimate this code in love (Matt. 22:37-40) that
+we rise to the full significance and divine content of morality. The
+Christian code rests not in negation, but commands a life of outgoing,
+active love. A lofty altruism must permeate his every act and give
+colouring to his whole life. Christ not only introduced and emphasized
+this golden rule; He taught that it was absolutely necessary (John 12:25;
+Matt. 5:44).
+
+To the Hindu, on the other hand, the _lex talionis_ is a law of life still
+enforced. See, _e.g._, Vishnu Purana 5:19. He never thinks nor is he
+commanded by his religion to think, of aught but outward conformity to a
+moral code which is altogether inadequate to keep, direct and inspire him
+in life. This difficulty is, of course, enhanced when we remember that in
+the whole realm of Hindu life—whether it be of gods or of men—there is no
+one who looms up as a perfect example. It is therefore little wonder that
+in India today morality is at so low an ebb and that even the code which
+prevails there is so sadly and universally violated.
+
+Hopkins aptly remarks in this connection: “This Christian ideal of today,
+which makes fair-mindedness, liberality of thought, and altruism the
+respective representatives of the savage virtues of manual honesty,
+truth-speaking and hospitality, is just what is lacking in the more
+primitive ideal formulated in the code of savages and of Brahman alike....
+In India all the factors of the modern code are entirely lacking at the
+time when the old code was first completely formulated. Liberality of
+thought comes in with the era of the Upanishads; but it is a restricted
+freedom. Altruism is unknown to pure Brahmanism.”
+
+
+
+
+Conclusion.
+
+
+Considering therefore these two faiths in all their characteristics and
+tendencies we are warranted in concluding that Hinduism must wane and
+vanish. It is an ancient faith and has survived not a few storms. It has a
+strong place in the hearts of a great people. But the leaven of
+dissolution and death is mightily at work within it today. The times are
+changed, new circumstances are bringing in a revolution of thought.
+Foreign ideas, language and customs are the rage; a new civilization, the
+deadly foe to the strongholds of the faith, is supplanting the old. This
+faith has nothing to offer with a view to meeting this new and complicated
+situation. It opposes all progress; through its pundits and orthodox
+defenders it antagonizes modern civilization and scientific advancement at
+every point. It is given up to degrading idolatry and a debasing,
+all-absorbing ceremonialism. It is the foster-mother of ignorance.
+
+The mighty influence of Christianity, on the other hand, is being felt by
+all in the land; and the thousand-headed, thousand-handed civilization of
+the West is grasping and slowly transforming all their ideas of life.
+Verily India is in the throes of a new birth. Hinduism has done some good,
+doubtless. It has had a mission in the world and that has unquestionably
+been, partly, in the conservation of the great doctrine of God’s immanence
+at a time when the western world had largely forgotten it. But this work
+is no longer needed. Today this truth is emphasized also by the Christian
+Church, and in the safe and practical way, in combination and harmony with
+the personality and fatherhood of God.
+
+We can therefore look forward with confidence to the ultimate issue of
+this great conflict and see, through faith, the day when Christ shall
+reign supreme in that land.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               Chapter IV.
+
+
+THE PRODUCTS OF THE TWO FAITHS IN INDIA. THE HINDU AND THE NATIVE
+CHRISTIAN—A STUDY.
+
+
+During the many centuries of its history and working in India Hinduism has
+had ample opportunity to produce its own type of religious devotee, one
+who is thoroughly representative of its teaching and life. This type
+abounds in India today and is a faithful reflection of that faith. We
+shall now endeavour to study that living embodiment of Hinduism. In one
+respect it will be but another way of studying the faith itself—perhaps
+the best of all methods of studying a religion, for it is thus presented
+in life and action.
+
+Protestant Christianity has not been sufficiently long in India to develop
+and foster an Indian type of character of its own. And yet we see it
+rapidly working towards that consummation. A century is too brief a time
+for this purpose. Moreover, native Christian life in that land is too much
+under the dominance and guidance of the West to enjoy a large degree of
+spontaneity; and without spontaneity life is not natural.
+
+Nevertheless, the century that has passed has brought into existence the
+fourth generation of Protestant native Christians in India; and we are
+able to see, to some extent, among these descendants of native Christians
+that tendency and bent which will ere long develop into a definite and
+settled type of its own. For the time being we can only study the native
+Christian as a prophecy—a prophecy not for many years to be fulfilled in
+all its details, and yet worthy of study both in itself and for what it
+suggests.
+
+Let us consider, then, these types of the two faiths which we see in that
+land.
+
+
+
+
+1. And First, The Hindu.
+
+
+The Hindu Devotee is a genuine product of his religion, wrought out during
+thirty centuries on its native heath. He stands before us as a distinct
+type whose characteristics differentiate him from the followers of any
+other religion.
+
+It is well to remember here that that modern product—the Hindu of Western
+culture who is so much in evidence today in India and who sometimes comes
+West in flowing orange robes and turban to urge his mongrel philosophy
+upon our fellow-countrymen—is not the type of Hindu appreciated by, or
+representing, the people of that land. Neither in life nor in teaching
+does he represent the faith whose name he bears. He is a man who has
+studied Western thought and religion under the guidance and inspiration,
+perhaps, of the Christian missionary; and then in an ingenious way strives
+to interpret his own faith in the light of his Western attainments. He
+presents to us not orthodox Hinduism, but a mongrel doctrine and
+philosophy which are as foreign to the teaching of the orthodox Hindu
+pundit and as alien to the Hindu Scriptures as they are to Western
+philosophy and faith. It is a significant fact that all these
+Western-travelled Hindus have first to violate a fundamental injunction of
+their own religion—namely, that which prohibits sea travelling to a
+Hindu—before they can visit the West in order to commend their faith. And
+when they return to their native country they do so as the outcastes of
+their religion, and can be reinstated only after performing a work of
+atonement which includes the disgusting act of eating the five products of
+the cow!
+
+The _real_ Hindu, who stands today as the true exponent of his faith, is a
+very different man. He would no more cross the seas than he would cut off
+his right arm; for he knows that he can remain a true Hindu only so long
+as he remains at home. He is a conservative of the stiffest kind. He
+thinks on ancient lines and swears by the rishis of old.
+
+                      [Illustration: Idol Worship.]
+
+                  [Illustration: Religious Mendicants.]
+
+(_a_) Study his prepossessions and then alone can you appreciate his
+heritage. Though he may not be a scholar or a philosopher, he is
+nevertheless fortified by a host of religious beliefs and prejudices. A
+thousand dogmas and prepossessions, the inherited treasures of thirty
+centuries, are his. He drank them in with his mother’s milk; he has
+breathed them in as an essential part of his daily environment. They are
+more than second nature to him and constitute largely the world of his
+thought. His ideas of God, of himself, of sin, of salvation, of human
+life—all are far removed from ours and are peculiarly his own. He feels
+himself to be in the toils of an iron destiny which slowly grinds him to
+powder. His conception of God brings him no ray of comfort, or hope of
+release. His idea is that his sin and suffering of today are the
+inflictions, by some unknown power, for the sins of supposed former
+births. So that he must, through countless ages, work out his own
+salvation—a salvation which indeed means eternal rest; but it is a rest
+from all thought, emotion, self-consciousness and separate existence as
+well as from all work.
+
+Within the mighty fascination of this Vedantism the people have been held
+through the centuries. And it is a doctrine which renders the highest
+morality impossible and has proved the mightiest soporific to the
+conscience. A few years ago a murderer in South India was being led from
+the court of justice to prison where, soon, he was to be executed for his
+crime. As he was struggling in the street with the police, a missionary
+accosted him, urging him to confess his sin against God and to seek his
+peace. Whereupon the man replied, “I did not commit the murder; it was the
+work of God Himself, in whose hands I am and of whom I am part.” To this
+the missionary replied that this was neither true nor worthy, and that he
+would soon suffer the full penalty of the law for his crime. “Ah, yes,” he
+exclaimed, “the god who wrought this in me and through me, will put me to
+death. It is all his and I am he.”
+
+Such is the line of thought which passes through the mind of the orthodox
+Hindu devotee under all circumstances, be they pleasant or disagreeable.
+And it is one of the most difficult things for him, under these
+circumstances, to cultivate a true sense of responsibility and a genuine
+conception of sin as a moral act.
+
+(_b_) See again his ideals. He has many such which influence him largely
+in his life. Much depends upon what a man regards as the _Summum Bonum_ of
+life. The supreme blessing which the Hindu ever holds before his eyes, as
+the highest and last attainment, is union with God. Not a union of
+sympathy, but a metaphysical oneness with Brâhm. To lose himself entirely
+in the Divine Being and thus to cease having separate thought or
+existence, and to pass out of the turmoil and restlessness of human life
+into the calm of the passionless bosom of the Eternal—this, to him, is the
+ideal which alone is worthy of human attainment.
+
+Again; we, Christians, look forward to a complete self-realization, to a
+perfect manhood and a full rounded character as our ideal. The opposite
+ideal is the Hindu’s. He seeks the loss of all that we hold best—the
+elimination of every ambition and desire, the eradication of all love and
+altruism, the cessation of all activity—good as well as evil. His ideal is
+not greatness and goodness of heart, but the renunciation of all that
+animates and inspires. To him the highest virtue in its noblest activity
+has no charms; for he claims that he looks above and beyond all this to
+that absolute equilibrium of soul when passion, and when all desire, shall
+have been killed through self-mortification and self-abnegation and he
+shall have attained mental poise and repose rather than a perfect
+character. Thus, in its last analysis, his ideal is an intellectual,
+rather than a moral, one; for it is again absorption into the Divine Soul;
+and that he conceives to be the Supreme Intelligence rather than the
+Perfect Will. This difference of ideal between the two faiths is
+fundamental and must work for very diverse results.
+
+In harmony with this is the other thought that the body, yea each and
+every body with which the soul may clothe itself, is an unmitigated evil
+because it is the highway to suffering and defers the final consummation.
+Hence, the Hindu has no respect for the body and longs for the day of
+final emancipation from flesh and all its ills.
+
+How then shall the soul be freed from its many births so that it may pass
+out of this bondage into the final freedom of _Sayutcha_, or emancipation?
+To him _Yoga_, the way of meditation, represents the highest way of
+release. To wean the mind, through this process, from all desire and
+ambition and thus to reach absolute equilibrium of soul is the object of
+_Yoga_. This indeed is the only condition whereby the soul can rise above
+any future contact with earthly bodies.
+
+Consequently the Hindu has, for many centuries, looked to the monastery
+and the wilderness as the only places where this ideal can be safely and
+speedily attained. To live among men, and thus to be subjected to
+corroding cares and to the swaying passions of human society, renders the
+attainment of beatification impossible. Under these circumstances the soul
+finds no way of emancipation. Therefore the watchword of the Hindu is,
+“flee from the world rather than overcome it.” For the attainment of those
+qualities which ensure final repose he immures himself in a _mutt_ or he
+flees into the forest where, apart from men, he gives himself to
+self-mortification and meditation that he may speedily find the desired
+release. At the root of this idea, as its animating motive, lies the
+worthy ambition of living a better life than the environments of a corrupt
+society favour. And with this desire is coupled the idea that a full
+rounded life and a perfected character are not only possible in the
+solitude of a wilderness but are nowhere else attainable. And thus it is,
+with many, a silent acknowledgment of failure and of the belief that in
+the rush and struggle of public life a godly, heavenly-minded character is
+impossible. According to the Hindu conception, a man may be successful in
+business matters, but he cannot be holy or fit for the highest communion
+with God unless he spend his time in separation from all his kind.
+Therefore the so-called pious and holy men of that land are ascetics. They
+eschew human society and seek to renounce all human good and every earthly
+ambition.
+
+With this purpose, ostensibly, in view there are, as we saw, about
+5,500,000 men in India who have given up all earthly employment, who live
+apart as ascetics and spend their time in roaming around the country as
+religious mendicants. These people are, in the main, doubtless possessed
+of the laudable ambition to be holy and to prepare themselves for union
+with Brâhm. And yet, as a matter of fact, they are the most pestilential
+in their morals of all the people of the land. Many of them, at the same
+time, both regard themselves and are regarded by their co-religionists as
+the acme of piety. Nevertheless, they daily trample under foot every
+command of the decalogue. It is true that a few of them are different from
+the mass, and genuinely seek the higher life for the cultivation of which
+they have separated themselves. But into their ideal of life altruism
+hardly enters at all. It is not to do good unto others, but to escape
+contamination from others which is the concern of the Hindu devotee. At
+the basis of his higher aspirations concern for self is supreme, thoughts
+of others are absent.
+
+A notable illustration of a high realization of the Eastern ideal we see
+in the famous Hindu ascetic Swamiji Bhaskara Nanda Sarasvati, of Benares,
+who recently died and to whom Dr. Fairbairn has referred so cordially. For
+many years he had given himself to devotion and meditation. He had subdued
+the body by the rigours of asceticism and had attained preëminence in
+self-restraint and in the highest wisdom of _yoga_ culture. He had
+therefore retired from the world, spurned all its allurements, denied all
+its claims and devoted himself exclusively to thought and meditation. Thus
+immured within temple walls in the great city of Benares he was utterly
+oblivious to the sin and sorrow of the swarming multitudes of that city
+and did nought to relieve the suffering, or to improve the lives, of his
+fellow-beings. He died, and over his remains has been erected a shrine to
+which the thousands go for worship and for inspiration to attain unto that
+ideal of life which they believe him to have realized.
+
+This ideal has, for centuries, taken possession of the Hindu mind, and
+never before did it rule with more absolute sway than it does at present.
+
+Another ideal of life with the Hindu is the so-called “path of works.” At
+present this term is synonymous with a life of ceremonialism. In modern
+parlance “works” means to the Hindu, ceremonial observance. His life is
+hedged in on all sides by a host of ceremonies and is permeated through
+and through with a most complicated ritual. There is nothing in the life
+of a Hindu devotee, whether it be eating, sleeping, bathing or travelling,
+which is not religiously prescribed both as to time and method. And
+utterly regardless of the significance of these rites or the
+appropriateness of them to his life, he deems their observance as
+essential to his salvation and finds in their daily keeping the highest
+satisfaction and completest assurance of his spiritual progress.
+
+The Hindu is no rationalist in his religion. He obeys implicitly, and
+without question, the ritual of his ancestors and finds no interest in the
+scrutiny or analysis of them.
+
+So, to the ordinary Hindu, especially to him to whom the way of meditation
+in the wilderness seems impossible, ceremonialism becomes a matter of
+supreme concern. No other religion has furnished to its followers a more
+elaborate and pervasive system of observances than this. These rites
+exercise their influence upon the mind and are wielding today a most
+potent influence upon Hindu character. A man may think nothing of, nor
+have any ambition to attain unto, the spiritual aspect of his faith; he
+may give no time whatever to any of its teachings or spiritual
+instruction; but if he maintain its ritual with ordinary care he flatters
+himself with the thought that he has attained a perfection corresponding
+to his estate.
+
+Moreover, the Hindu is a thorough _fatalist_. He believes that his destiny
+is “written upon the forehead.” Nothing which he may do can affect this
+destiny. Nor does it seem to be a part of the divine purpose. So far as he
+is concerned it is an irrevocable fate. This belief manifests itself
+largely in his life and conduct. It is one of the inconsistencies of the
+Hindu’s thinking that he, at the same time, worships a tribal god in whose
+hands he believes his affairs to be, and through whom prosperity can flow
+into his life for time and eternity; and yet he holds, with equal, yea
+with greater, persistence, the law of _Karma_, that is, the law of works,
+according to which law alone future life, both to himself and to all men,
+must be wrought out even to the last detail. It is strange that a man
+whose pantheon is so crowded as that of the Hindu, and who believes in
+such constant divine guidance and interference, should, also, at the same
+time, maintain a theory of life which practically dispenses with all
+divine action and makes human life the product of a blind and grinding
+fate. Nothing is more marked as a characteristic of Hindu thought today
+than a possession by the people of these mutually conflicting and
+contradictory views of life.
+
+(_c_) Looking at the Hindu from a social standpoint we see him largely
+affected by the caste system. Not only is his life in bondage to this
+system, his view of life, too, is thoroughly coloured by his caste
+sentiments.
+
+Just as ceremonialism covers all his personal life, even so caste
+observance defines for him all his social relations. There is not a tie or
+an influence which binds man to man that is not, to the Hindu, a part of
+the great and all-embracing caste system. So all-pervasive is this social
+tyranny that a man dare not withstand it; yea, more, he has learned to
+look at it as the prime necessity of his social being and therefore
+invariably regards it as the highest good. He may indeed believe that, in
+the abstract, caste is an evil and that it has been a curse to the people
+of the land. But he nevertheless maintains that, as it is an ancient part,
+and a most important part, of his ancestral faith, it must be submitted to
+in all obedience and regarded as the ideal of life.
+
+The Bhagavad-Gita is regarded today not only as the gem of all Hindu
+literature; it is also held up by educated Hindus as the highest authority
+among their _Shastras_. Concerning caste duties this “Divine Song” speaks
+as follows:
+
+“Better to do the duty of one’s caste,
+Though bad and ill-performed and fraught with evil,
+Than undertake the business of another,
+However good it be. For better far
+Abandon life at once than not fulfill
+One’s own appointed work; another’s duty
+Brings danger to the man who meddles with it.
+Perfection is alone attained by him
+Who swerves not from the business of his caste.”
+
+Therefore the Hindu has come to regard caste observance as the supreme
+claim of his faith. As we have seen, a man may believe or disbelieve any
+doctrine he please; that does not affect his status as a Hindu so long as
+he is loyal to caste rules and observances. As one has aptly remarked, the
+seat of other religions may be in the mind; the seat of Hinduism is
+preëminently in the stomach. It is not what he thinks but what and how and
+with whom he eats that gives him his religious status.
+
+The Hindu regards himself as socially devoid of any right of initiative
+and choice; he has no will of his own. His social conscience is in the
+keeping of his caste. This has gained its rules from the past and
+exercises no discretion or judgment of its own in the social direction of
+its members; but it insists upon implicit obedience, by every one, to past
+customs which have crystallized into irrevocable laws. And to these laws
+the Hindu is always and everywhere a willing and an abject slave. To
+violate any of them is, he well knows, to be recreant to his faith and to
+be an outcaste among his people.
+
+(_d_) The Hindu is not strong in character, as Westerners regard strength.
+As we have seen, his religion is not favourable to the highest development
+of conscience. Hence, sincerity and truthfulness are not among his strong
+points. Not only does pantheism undermine conscience, the example of the
+most prominent gods of the Hindu pantheon, leads men to prevaricate and
+encourages all forms of duplicity. Under these circumstances it were
+strange if the Hindu were conspicuous in honesty and in loyalty to the
+truth. And in like manner he is wanting largely in those convictions
+which, in the West, are so inseparably associated with earnestness,
+integrity and lofty purpose. If, to the Hindu devotee, religion is not a
+system of truth to be believed and loyally followed, but a series of
+ceremonies to be observed and of caste rules to be obeyed, then loyalty to
+truth becomes a very secondary matter and integrity of mind will be
+regarded by him as of no great moment. Therefore it is that hollowness is
+so often found at the core of their life. Lying and stealing are all but
+universal. It is said in our District in South India that the regular
+price of a court witness is two annas (four cents); and he stands ready to
+perjure himself to any extent for this paltry sum. The ordinary Hindu
+seems too often to have a predilection for falsehood and uses truth with
+rare economy! There, dishonesty and petty larceny are foibles too
+frequently condoned because too generally practiced. Even among the higher
+classes—the cultured and élite—open-faced and open-handed frankness and
+sincerity are too rare. Hypocrisy and duplicity are too often cultivated
+as a fine art. It seems to be the pride and pleasure of an Oriental to
+conceal his mind and purpose and to say and do things by the greatest
+indirection possible.
+
+India has been extolled as a land where there is no profanity. This is
+true and she should have the credit for this abstinence. And one never
+feels like giving her this credit more than when he returns from that
+country to this and is compelled to endure the coarse profanity which
+pervades our streets as a terrible stench.
+
+Yet one can hardly see how the Hindu could find interest in, and a strong
+grip upon, profanity, so long as the gods of his pantheon have so little
+of his respect and enter so rarely into the serious compacts of his life.
+Moreover it should not be forgotten that obscenity fulfills in India the
+function of profanity in the West. The bursts of passion which find
+expression here through taking the name of God in vain gain utterance
+there in language unspeakably bad of the other kind. And this is only a
+part of the larger subject of the prevalence of social immorality in
+India—an evil which is largely fostered under the protection of the
+religion of the land. When Lord Dalhousie, the Viceroy of India, was
+considering an act for the suppression of obscenity in the country, he was
+compelled by Hindu sentiment to exempt all temples and religious emblems
+from the operation of the act! What better commentary could one desire
+upon the source and prevalence of this vice in that land? When such an
+evil is intrenched behind the religion of the people and is symbolized and
+fostered by its emblems and ceremonies—when _tasies_, or women dedicated
+to the Hindu gods and temple worship (there are 12,000 of these in South
+India alone), constitute the public characters of the land—then the hope
+for the purification of life is at the lowest ebb.
+
+It is also very rare that one finds a Hindu whose convictions and loyalty
+to certain beliefs are such that he is willing to suffer in their behalf.
+That masculine vigour and manly persistence under difficulty in
+maintaining what he believes to be right and true is not germane to the
+Hindu character.
+
+On the other hand, the Hindu is strong in the so-called passive virtues.
+In harmony with his religious beliefs, patience and meekness and endurance
+of evil have become second nature to him. This side of his character has,
+indeed, received undue emphasis during the many centuries of his history.
+He cannot understand the rush and impatience, the push and aggressiveness
+of the Westerner any more than he of the West can understand the Hindu’s
+cool, quiet, patient, bearing under most trying and adverse circumstances.
+He has a large lesson to teach us in the art of self-control and in the
+ability to endure with complacency evils which cannot be remedied.
+
+Thus as we look at the Hindu from the various standpoints of life and
+character we see how strange a compound he is, and how unlike the man of
+the West at nearly all points in our examination. He is preëminently weak
+where we are strong, and he manifests strength where we seem to need it
+most. His religion has developed within him traits and tendencies which,
+through these many centuries, have wonderfully wrought in his life and
+character, and have largely made him what he is today.
+
+Moreover all this enables us to see what a serious problem Christianity
+has in hand in India today, namely the conversion of 230,000,000 people so
+far removed in life and sentiment from those who have gone to preach
+Christ to them. Yea, more, we have seen what mighty influences and forces
+Christianity has to overcome, what hosts of prejudices to destroy, before
+she can lay her hand in power upon that great land and claim it as her
+own.
+
+
+
+
+2. Let us Now Study The Native Christian.
+
+
+The Indian Christian, as we have seen, is a recent product, so far as
+Protestant Christianity is concerned. And yet we are glad to witness a
+marked development in the life and character of those who are connected
+with the Protestant missions. It is true that fully one-half of the
+Christian community there found has been connected with our faith no more
+than a quarter of a century. But as we compare these recent accessions to
+our faith with those Christians of a second, third and fourth generation
+we are much encouraged by the growth in Christian character and principle
+which is taking place. I have often studied these differences between the
+recent convert and the Christian-born member of the community. I have also
+compared those of the second, with those of the third and fourth,
+generation of Christian heritage; and I have been much encouraged to see
+that our faith is adding to its power over the life and character of the
+native Christian community as the years and generations increase. And if
+the work continues, with the present insistence and vigour, it will not
+take many generations more before Christianity will have become thoroughly
+indigenous, because it will have developed a type of character in that
+land fully in harmony with its own genius and teaching.
+
+It is necessary, however, in considering this question, that we remember
+specially that the antecedents and the environment of the native Christian
+have been entirely Hindu. His ancestral faith has coloured, and must
+colour, largely his religious preceptions and conduct. Let it not be
+thought that, when a man abandons Hinduism and becomes a Christian, he
+thereby, once and for all, drives out of his mind all those
+prepossessions, prejudices and superstitions which he has inherited from
+the past. It will take a long time for him to separate himself from these
+and their influence. Many of them will probably cling to him during his
+whole life. It is as much as we can hope that Christian truth will take
+increasing possession of his mind and gradually supplant the old and
+unworthy beliefs of Hinduism.
+
+There are moreover certain elements of truth in that old faith which we do
+not care to eliminate from his mental furnishing, but which must find new
+adjustment and be properly located in the new religion which he has
+adopted.
+
+It should also be remembered and made prominent in our consideration of
+this subject that the people of India are an Oriental people and are the
+children of the tropics and, as such, will always remain and must remain
+very different from us of the Northwest. Their climatic and meteorological
+conditions, their outer, physical life, their social customs and the trend
+of their civilization, have always been, and will continue to be, far
+removed from our own. Nothing could be more fatal to our success in our
+effort for the conversion of India than the idea that we must in every
+respect mold them after the pattern of Western life and habits. A large
+portion of their life is the result of the conditions which I have
+mentioned and must largely remain unchanged; and it would be folly for the
+missionary to regard these as a part of the faith to be supplanted, and to
+teach that western social customs are inseparable from Christianity and
+must be accepted by the Orient with our faith. The Christian of India will
+always be, and it is well that he should be, differentiated from the
+Anglo-Saxon Christian.
+
+It should also be remembered that the people of India, at least the
+masses, are low in civilization. It should not be expected that those who
+are in that low estate, when they become Christians, will leap with one
+bound into the full possession of a high civilization and be clothed upon
+with some of those beauties of western life and character which we
+inevitably associate with the term, “A Christian Gentleman.” They, indeed,
+become truly and sincerely the disciples of Christ; but they will, at the
+same time, manifest some of the crudities and weaknesses of the low social
+grade of which they have been and still remain a part. They should not be
+judged by standards Western or of a high civilization.
+
+Looking, then, at the native Christian of India let us have regard to his
+condition socially, morally, religiously and spiritually.
+
+(_a_) Studying this product of the Christian faith in that land from a
+_social_ standpoint we find encouragement. He differs from his Hindu
+neighbour by a growing freedom from the trammels of caste. He feels, in
+his best moments, that caste has been and continues to be the greatest
+curse of the land, that he has been emancipated from it, and that he is
+ambitious to enjoy the liberty wherewith Christ has made him free. And
+yet, unfortunately, he does not remain constantly in the possession of
+this sane mind. The roots of the caste system have reached down into the
+lowest depths of his being. Even at times when he believes that he is
+absolutely independent of caste considerations, there is in him a blind
+persistence which clings to caste bondage. I have often felt that Hinduism
+can be dispensed with by our convert with vastly more ease in all other
+particulars than in its caste feelings and affiliations. This relic of the
+past clings to him with a tenacity which is phenomenal and most sad.
+Though everything teaches him that this caste system is the greatest enemy
+of Christianity and will prevent any one who believes and practices it
+from fully imbibing the spirit of Christ; and though he aspires to be an
+earnest and an efficient Christian and to love all his brethren, this
+remnant of Hinduism in his heart returns to rob him of the joys and
+blessings of his Christian birthright. I have seen this frequently
+disfigure what would otherwise have been a beautiful Christian character.
+I have witnessed it blast the prospects of Christian congregations dooming
+them to stagnation and death. I have known it to palsy the arm and deaden
+the heart of more than one Christian worker.
+
+All this is inevitable when we remember the mighty influence and the long
+continued dominance of caste in that land. But even at this point, where
+the missionary finds the greatest discouragement, there are marked signs
+of progress. So long as the missionary fought this evil alone there was
+little hope of success. But, during the last few years, the conscience of
+the native Christian Church itself has been roused on this question. The
+Indian Christian today, as never before, has the conviction that this
+caste evil saps the spiritual life of every member and of every church
+which entertains it, and that it is his supreme duty to fight it steadily
+in his own heart, home and church. And there is an increasing number,
+especially of the young Christians, who are pledging themselves to an
+unceasing warfare against the demon caste. Christians are also organizing
+themselves into Caste Suppression Societies. All this is highly
+encouraging, but needs large furtherance and development before the native
+Christian can be said to be freed from this most subtle curse of the
+ancestral faith.
+
+The old Hindu Joint Family System is the foster-mother of the caste idea,
+and it is cheering to see native Christians increasingly abandoning that
+system for the Western idea of home which encourages thrift, independence
+and liberty among the various members of a family and clan.
+
+In India, for many years to come, this blight of social narrowness,
+exclusiveness and divisiveness will affect more or less the native
+Christian character and give colour to the native Christian Church. For
+centuries it may prove the weak spot of Indian Christianity.
+
+(_b_) _Morally_, the native Christian develops slowly. One writer has
+recently claimed that the Christian of India manifests little, if any,
+preëminence over the Hindu, in this respect. This is not true. He is
+certainly moving forward and upward morally. But it should be remembered
+that moral character is not one of the first results of Christian conquest
+among such a people. It is rather the highest and last fruit upon the tree
+of Christian life. It should not be forgotten that what we regard in the
+West as the high moral traits of a Christian gentleman are the product of
+more than 1,000 years of Christian living.
+
+The native Christian manifests, in this respect, the weakness of his
+antecedents and his environment. When we remember that weakness of
+character to which we have referred as belonging to the Hindu it is not
+surprising that the native Christian, who is daily surrounded by men of
+that faith and who imbibes the atmosphere of that religion, should largely
+be affected by the same evil. A few years ago an English barrister
+complained to me of certain Christian witnesses who had given evidence in
+a case recently conducted by him in Madura. “I hate to have your
+Christians as witnesses in any of my cases,” he says; “for whenever they
+venture to give false evidence they instantly falter and stumble and are
+caught by the opposing counsel. A Hindu, when he gives false evidence,
+will tell a straight and a plausible story. But your Christians are too
+much affected by twinges of conscience.” What was embarrassing and
+annoying to him was encouraging to me! That our Christians should
+occasionally give false evidence did not surprise me; but that they, in
+this matter, should be differentiated, by this disinterested observer,
+from Hindu witnesses is a reliable testimony in favour of their growing
+veracity.
+
+Among the higher class of native Christians, which is annually increasing
+in number, there is marked improvement in character. Especially among
+mission agents do we have opportunity to witness this development. They
+are growing in sincerity and reliability. The missionary is learning, with
+increasing pleasure, to place confidence in their veracity. And yet, we
+must mourn that moral progress among our people, both high and low, is not
+more rapid and satisfying.
+
+Social immorality, as we have seen, is very prevalent in that tropical
+country. It is natural that this should annoy and worry us greatly among
+our native Christians. It is a sad fact that more of our mission agents
+are dismissed on account of this sin than any other. Hindu society is not
+only largely demoralized by this evil, there is also no public sentiment
+against it. But, under the influence of a growing sentiment in behalf of
+chastity and purity, the evil is gradually diminishing among our native
+Christians.
+
+One source of moral depravity in Hindu society is the prevalent belief
+among them that there is no necessary connection between piety and
+morality. Their faith maintains that a man may be an ardent and worthy
+devotee, and at the same time trample under foot every part of the
+decalogue. Indeed the immorality of their religious ascetics is as
+noticeable as their profession of piety. Nobody there questions their
+lofty faith, their deep piety, their supreme devotion to their gods; nor
+will any one hesitate for one moment to charge them with every vice and
+sin in the human catalogue. Such is the Hindu mind that it can and does
+believe that these, to us, inseparable elements of a noble life, can be
+severed and found absolutely apart. In India, today, the moral people are
+largely the non-religious; while the ostentatiously religious are the
+publicly immoral ones.
+
+It will take a long time for this fundamental and universally prevailing
+error to lose its grip upon our Christian people in that land. We find,
+not infrequently, in the Christian community, men and women living in
+unrighteousness and at the same time believing that it will be overlooked
+in the Divine account because of their zeal in Christian advocacy or their
+offering for the Christian cause. Perhaps this land of the West also is
+not free from such a delusion! We endeavour to teach them, in the language
+of the Apostle Paul (1 Tim. 3:9), “to hold the mystery of the faith in a
+pure conscience”; and we emphasize the supreme truth that faith and
+conscience, piety and morality are one and inseparable.
+
+(_c_) _Religiously_, the native Christian is slowly shaking off the
+clinging brood of superstitions which he inherited from Hinduism. Our most
+recent converts have often a tenacious belief in the efficacy of some of
+those childish superstitions and charms which were largely their main stay
+in their ancestral religion. In most cases these are not a matter of faith
+so much as of inheritance which have become more than a second nature to
+them. Idolatry may be abandoned, belief in Hinduism as a saving faith may
+be thrown to the winds, Hindu ritual may lose its charm; but the many
+little superstitions which are connected with private life and social
+customs have still a quiet influence and a lingering power over them.
+These largely belong to the life of those who have _recently_ accepted the
+Christian faith. It may be that some of them will never make that progress
+in life which will lift them entirely above some of these Hindu
+superstitions. But the great majority of native Christians today have
+religiously had no connection whatever with Hinduism and have entirely
+substituted Christian rites and observances for those of the Hindu
+religion. And they apparently have large satisfaction in them. The old
+Hindu idea of the supreme value of asceticism is largely yielding to a
+Christian altruism which abandons self-centred, self-seeking, activity in
+favour of loving sympathy for, and an endeavour to do good to, men.
+
+We also notice that among them the idea of the efficacy of certain forms
+and ceremonies is lessening in favour of a conviction of the power of the
+inner life of faith.
+
+And yet it should be constantly kept in mind that ceremony and ritual must
+always find a larger place in the religious life of India than in that of
+the United States. The inhabitant of India is tropical and poetic in
+temperament. He beholds things, and appreciates and appropriates spiritual
+blessings, more through the help of forms and ceremonies than does the man
+of the West. A rite appeals to his nature more strongly and lends to him
+greater facility in getting at its underlying truth and antitype than it
+does to us. Indeed it is his nature to look at Christian truth through the
+eyes of a poet; and ceremonies consequently convey to him the largest
+significance and are more revealing of the spirit within. We seek divine
+truth and spiritual blessings more directly than he. It would be therefore
+a mistake for us to expect that practical, unpoetic mind of ours in the
+Oriental, or to present religious truth to him in its nakedness, unadorned
+and unenforced by rite and ritual. It has been, and, to some extent,
+continues to be the fault of our Congregational Missions in India that
+they try to lift the native Christian to those dry, unadorned, simple
+forms of religious service which indeed satisfy the missionaries, but
+which ignore the great difference of nature and temperament between
+themselves and the converts. It should be remembered that in India people
+think vocally. Even as they must and do read aloud in order to read
+intelligently, so must they worship aloud in order to worship feelingly
+and thoughtfully. Hence the wisdom and urgency for them of a ritual and a
+responsive service.
+
+(_d_) _Spiritually_, the Indian Christian is slowly and surely developing
+on definite lines of his own.
+
+The simplicity of his faith is beautiful. He has none of those questions
+of doubt or misgivings of unbelief which are so prevalent in the West. He
+takes the Bible in all fullness of acceptance. His prayers are not crossed
+and frustrated by any rationalistic theories, but have the simplicity of
+childish directness, filial trust and full expectancy. Nothing has touched
+me more in my contact with native Christians than to feel the directness,
+simplicity, unquestioning trustfulness of their prayers even in times of
+greatest adversity.
+
+The native Christian possesses a mystic temperament. The inhabitants of
+that land, through many centuries of training, have become natural mystics
+in religion. This national heritage the native Christian retains; and
+properly chastened and directed by Christian truth and faith it will add
+depth, beauty and power to his religious life. Under these conditions I
+shall have no fear of mysticism in the Christian Church in India. Deep
+spirituality and a yearning after the hidden things of religion is more
+natural to the East than to the West. The West is practical and worldly;
+the East is mystical and other-worldly. The native Christian, at his best,
+is manifesting some of this spiritual power. He takes naturally to the
+Pauline emphasis upon the life “hid with Christ in God,” and to the mystic
+union which exists between Christ and His own.
+
+It is here that the native Church in India is, I believe, to show an
+inspiring example to the Church of the West. If the Christian of India is
+not to be as practical or indeed as spiritually sane as his brother of the
+West, he will probably illustrate more of the hidden mysteries and power
+of the spiritual life. In this respect the spiritual power of the East and
+that of the West will be, in their separate emphasis, mutually
+complementary.
+
+The Indian Christian, true to his native temperament, is and will continue
+to be strong in the so-called passive virtues, and weak in the positive or
+aggressive ones. Patience, meekness, gentleness, endurance—these are the
+graces which preëminently adorn him and which give colour and shape to his
+religious character. Here, again, his life will be very different from
+that life which has characterized, thus far, the Western Christian. The
+masculine virtues of assertion, boldness, aggressiveness have
+characterized the West. We have been strong and continue strong in that
+aspect of our faith which we associate with the words assertion and
+attack. The West has, true to its environment and training, developed
+Christian character mostly, I will not say exclusively, on the positive
+side of life. The equally important passive virtues we of the West have
+much neglected if not despised as weakness. The East is even today
+manifesting the blessedness, and the native Christian will increasingly
+illustrate, the beauty and potency, of the passive virtues—of the
+spiritual element of endurance and non-resistance. He will show to us that
+a true and perfected character—a character molded after that of the divine
+Exemplar—must have also, and with equal emphasis, the sweet and feminine
+passive graces of life as an essential element. In India today the
+Anglo-Saxon is wont to speak with contempt of “The mild Hindu.” That
+mildness which we are too apt to despise contains the germs of that half
+of Christian character which is too largely wanting in the spiritual life
+of the Anglo-Saxon and which the Christian Church of India will
+increasingly illustrate and gradually seek to respect, honour, and
+ultimately, to adopt.
+
+Thus, speaking broadly of the native Christian of India today we find him
+almost as much a product of heredity and environment as he is of
+Christianity. He holds out Christ before himself as his ideal of life, and
+His words as the all-satisfying truth. He seeks in His redeeming work rest
+and salvation of soul; but many of the deepest yearnings of his heart come
+to him through old channels worn out by his ancestral faith. Hinduism
+gives more or less of colouring to his religious thought and aspirations;
+and not a few of its forms and ceremonies are retained, but filled with a
+new Christian content, and are utilized to aid in the development of
+Christian life. Even as the Jews of old entered into possession and
+appreciation of Christian life through Jewish rites and ceremonies, so do
+native converts enter Christian life through Hindu forms today. From the
+necessity of their thought and being they utilize not a few of the
+processes of the old, in order to acquire and enjoy the blessings of the
+new, faith. This cannot be avoided nor do we desire that it should be
+avoided.
+
+             [Illustration: House Of A Missionary In India.]
+
+               [Illustration: A Village Christian Church.]
+
+The study of the Indian Christian character in its peculiarities and
+tendencies is of importance, because, as I have said above, I believe it
+is to affect our conceptions of life in the West. At the present time not
+a few of the religious vagaries which infest our land such as Christian
+Science and Theosophy, have chiefly come to us from India. At least,
+whatever of philosophy they may possess, and all of the occultism and
+mysticism which they court and magnify, are thoroughly Eastern and Indian.
+And from the popularity of such movements in this land it would seem as if
+the boast of some men that Hindu thought is invading the West is partially
+true. But the invasion which I desire and expect, in the not distant
+future, is the invasion of an Oriental _Christian_ thought, _Christian_
+life and _Christian_ character. This will come in its time as truly as,
+and much more fully than, the other has come, and it will do this country
+as much good as the other is now doing evil.
+
+As an illustration of what I mean in reference to the influence of Eastern
+thought upon the West I would prophesy that ere long the Indian Christian
+Church will formulate for itself and enunciate to the world an advanced
+and helpful doctrine of the Holy Ghost beyond anything that the West has
+enunciated. India, which for these many centuries has been the home of an
+all-prevalent spiritual pantheism, when it comes to elaborate the doctrine
+of God, from a Christian standpoint, will give as much emphasis to His
+immanence as the West has given to His transcendence. God with us and in
+us and working in all creation, even the Holy Spirit of God,—this is the
+conception which the Indian Christian will elaborate and illuminate beyond
+anything that the West has thus far attempted.
+
+There is danger, today, and it is inevitable, that missionaries from the
+West be too ambitious to occidentalize the native Christian community,
+ignorant of, or indifferent to, the grand possibilities of thought and of
+life which lie in Eastern character and teaching. It is much easier to
+thrust upon them everything Western than it is to appreciate and to
+conserve many things Eastern. The future missionary will learn wisdom from
+the past and will enter upon his work with less depreciation of things
+Oriental and with a larger desire to conserve to the utmost Eastern habits
+of thought and social customs, so long as, and so far as, they can be made
+the vehicles of Christian thought and the channels of Christian life.
+Herein must lie the best means for a speedy coming of the Kingdom of
+Christ in India.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                Chapter V.
+
+
+THE WOMEN OF INDIA.
+
+
+The condition of its women is the truest test of a people’s civilization.
+Her status is her country’s barometer.
+
+The one hundred million women of India admirably reflect the whole social
+and religious condition of that land. There are more nations in India than
+are found in all Europe; they also present a greater diversity of type.
+Between the aboriginal tribes which treat the weaker sex only as a beast
+of burden, and the Parsee community which holds its women in the highest
+consideration and furnishes them with a liberal education and large
+opportunity, there are many intermediate tribes and nations which regard
+their women with varying degrees of consideration and of contempt.
+
+Of all Scriptures the Zend Avesta of the Parsees is the only one which
+furnishes woman, from the beginning, with absolute equality with man; and
+that position she has never lost among the Parsees. But the Parsees in
+India are a mere handful.
+
+The Hindu woman constitutes four-fifths of the total number of her sex in
+India; and her condition is fairly uniform everywhere and conforms, in
+varying degrees, to a type whose characteristics are easily recognized.
+She has come down from earliest history. We recognize her everywhere in
+the pages of their ancient literature, in their laws and legends; and we
+behold her in all the manifold walks of modern life. For nearly a quarter
+of a century the writer has lived as her neighbour, gazed daily upon her
+life, wondered at and admired her many noble traits which have been
+preserved under the most adverse circumstances, and grieved over her
+weakness and her many disabilities.
+
+In ancient times, the position of woman in India was one of power coupled
+with honour. Today the power remains, but the honour has been largely
+eliminated.
+
+1. In ancient Vedic times woman enjoyed many distinctions and revealed
+great aptitude. She joined her husband in the offering of domestic
+sacrifices and sat as queen in the home. Some of the sacred hymns of the
+Rigveda were made by her and have come down these thirty centuries as a
+beautiful testimony to her intellectual brightness and aspiration, and as
+an evidence of the honour in which she was held.
+
+Five centuries later this beautiful description was given of her in the
+Mahabarata:
+
+“A wife is half the man, his truest friend;
+A loving wife is a perpetual spring
+Of virtue, pleasure, wealth; a faithful wife
+Is his best aid in seeking heavenly bliss;
+A sweet speaking wife is a companion
+In solitude, a father in advice,
+A mother in all seasons of distress,
+A rest in passing through life’s wilderness.”
+
+The rights and opportunities of woman are strikingly illustrated by many
+of the legends of their ancient epics. For instance, we read of the
+_Svayamvara_ of the lovely princess Draupadi. It was the occasion when she
+had attained womanhood and was entitled to the right to choose her own
+husband. How graphically are the royal suitors described as they press
+their claims to her heart and hand in knightly tournament. It is one of
+those scenes which reveal woman in the possession of some of her most
+queenly rights and attractions.
+
+The ancient ideals of womanly character have come down the centuries writ
+large in their songs and annals; and these ideals are today held as
+dearly, and are loved and sung with as much ardour, as at any time in the
+history of India.
+
+Every boy and girl of that land, today, knows the lovely Sita, wife of the
+noble and heroic Rama,—how, while in the power of the terrible Ravana, and
+at risk of life, she withstood every temptation and lived in unspotted
+purity and in supreme devotion and faithfulness to her royal lord.
+
+Who does not know of the faithful Saguntala, whose legend is woven into
+one of the most beautiful and touching love stories the world has ever
+known. This drama was the first translation from Sanskrit into the English
+tongue and elicited the astonishment and lively admiration of such a man
+as Goethe.
+
+India has always boasted of the constancy and devotion of the beautiful
+Savitri to her beloved Sattyavân. After the death of her husband, she
+followed his soul into the spirit-world with fearless devotion and pleaded
+with the King of Death with so much passion and persistence for his return
+to life that he was finally restored to her in youthful vigour.
+
+These are some of the stock illustrations of the model wife used
+everywhere and at all times in India. And they have had an extensive and
+wonderful influence in the molding of wifely ideals.
+
+It is, as we see, a glorification of devotion, faithfulness,
+constancy—traits that have always beautified the character of the Hindu
+woman. It is true that, apart from her husband and from the kitchen, woman
+has had few ideals urged upon her in that great country. Her ambitions
+have not crossed the doorsteps of her house and home. She is measured
+entirely by her relation to her husband or children. She is her lord’s
+companion and servant. Love to him is the wand which alone can transform
+her life into gold. Her usefulness and her glory are the reflections of
+his pleasure and of his satisfaction in her. She has no separate
+existence. Apart from man, she is an absolute nonentity. And yet, within
+the sphere which has been granted to her, she has shone with a wonderful
+radiance and with a charm which reminds us often of some of Shakespeare’s
+beautiful womanly creations.
+
+The physical attractions of woman have always, of course, captivated the
+sterner sex in India, as in other lands. Her beauty is lavishly described
+and painted in warm colours through all Hindu literature. And she _is_
+physically beautiful; she will compare favourably with the fair ones of
+any land in womanly grace, in beauty of figure, and in bewitching charm of
+manner.
+
+But the standard of womanly grace and beauty is not precisely the same
+there as it is with us in the West. A Hindu and an American have different
+ideals of personal beauty. Though the Aryan type of countenance may not
+largely differ East and West, there are touches of expression and shades
+of beauty which correspond respectively to the different ideals in both
+lands. May they not have created the ideals themselves?
+
+The most common results of a Hindu woman’s toilet are the smooth hair, the
+blackened eyebrow, the reddened finger-nails, the pendent nose jewels, the
+bulky ear-rings, the heavy bangles for ankles and arms. Without these,
+life, to the Hindu belle, is not worth living. On wedding occasions, among
+the common folk, red ochre is also daubed over the throat in ghastly
+suggestion to the Westerner; but in glorious attractiveness to the native
+of the land!
+
+West and East associate a fair complexion with highest beauty. A fond
+Hindu mother once came to the writer moaning that she could not find a
+husband for her daughter because she was “too black!” The young man of
+India puts a premium upon every shade of added lightness of complexion.
+His taste is reflected in the universal feminine custom of using saffron
+dye to lighten the complexion upon all festive occasions.
+
+The clothing of the woman of India is exceedingly attractive. Her pretty
+garb sets off admirably the beauty of her person; and, both in
+inexpensiveness and grace, and in its contribution to health, is far
+better than the complicated extravagance, the heavy encumbrance and the
+insanitary tight-lacing of the West. The women of South India dress with a
+view to comfort in the tropics; but they have also, in a most remarkable
+degree, conserved appropriateness, beauty, and simplicity in their robes.
+The possibilities of the one cloth, which is the full dress of the South
+Indian woman, as a modest garment and as a charming full-dress equipment
+would be a revelation to the much dressed votary of the West. In the
+arranging of this cloth there is considerable scope for ingenuity and for
+æsthetic taste; although, in this matter, the rules of each caste furnish
+an iron etiquette which must be followed by the women. Indeed, the tyranny
+of Worth in the West is nothing as compared with caste tyranny as the
+Fashioner of the East. This is accounted for by the fact that a woman’s
+dress must be arranged in such a way as to publish abroad her caste
+affiliations.
+
+Woman has a vast influence upon the life of the people of India. In no
+other country has she relatively exercised more power. All this,
+notwithstanding the fact that, for more than twenty centuries, she has had
+no recognized position in religion or in society. Her spiritual destiny
+has been entirely in the hands of man. By the highest authorities her
+salvation has been made entirely dependent upon her connection with him.
+She has absolutely no right of worship of her own. From the cradle to the
+grave she is in man’s keeping. Until she is married, supreme obedience to
+her father is her only safety; while her husband lives, heaven’s blessings
+can come to her only through his favour and prayer; and, after his death,
+her sons become her lords and the sole guardians and protectors of her
+spiritual interests. All this is everywhere recognized by Hindu society,
+and by none more than by the woman herself.
+
+And yet, it is equally true, and a fact of remarkable significance, that,
+in India today, the religious influence of woman is paramount. She is the
+stronghold of Hinduism at the beginning of this twentieth century. Man,
+under the growing influence of western thought, civilization, and faith,
+has largely lost his moorings and is growing increasingly insincere and a
+trifler with religious beliefs and institutions. The woman, on the other
+hand, is a conservative of the conservatives. In her superstition she is
+deeply sincere; her faith has no questionings, and her piety shapes her
+every activity. Were it not for the women of India, Hinduism, with all its
+vaunted philosophy, its wonderful ritual and its mighty caste tyranny,
+would, within a decade, fall into “innocuous desuetude.”
+
+It is a significant fact that in the religion of no other people on earth
+does the worship of the female find so prominent a place. In many parts of
+the land _Sakti_ worship, or the worship of goddesses, is widely prevalent
+and almost paramount in influence. It is really the worship of power under
+a female form; and the power which these goddesses exercise is mostly
+malevolent in its character. The terrible wife of Siva, in all her dread
+manifestations, is the most popular deity, because the most feared in the
+land.
+
+It is natural to inquire whether this characteristic of the Hindu pantheon
+is not a reflection of the Hindu mind as to the influence of woman, and as
+to the belief of man in the evil character of that influence. As is the
+place and power of woman among the men so is the character and place of
+the goddesses in the pantheon of that people.
+
+The famous religious reformer Chunder Sen, though he adopted and used the
+Lord’s Prayer, changed the form of address from the masculine to the
+feminine and said, “Our Mother who art in heaven!” The adoration of the
+female in Hindu worship was never more marked than at present. What has
+Christianity to meet this bent of the Hindu mind? Or should it be
+discouraged as an element in worship? The Romanists meet it by exalting
+and giving preëminence to the Virgin Mother. The Protestants have nothing
+corresponding to this.
+
+Socially, the Hindu woman is a reactionary of the most pronounced type;
+she opposes social reform at all points—nowhere more than when it is
+directed to ameliorate her own condition. Religiously, as we have seen,
+she is the slave of man by law and teaching; yet she rules her household,
+even in these matters, with an iron hand.
+
+From her throne in the home she so wields her sceptre that it is felt also
+throughout the whole social fabric. Her beloved lord has perhaps passed
+through a university course, is a pronounced social reformer and
+discourses in eloquent English, before large audiences of his admiring
+countrymen, concerning the mighty social evils which are the curse of the
+country; he, with his ardent fellow-reformers, frames rules which shall
+soon usher in the millennium of social reform and progress! And then
+he—this man of culture, of eloquence, of noble purposes and of altruistic
+ambitions—goes to his home and meekly submits to the grandmotherly tyranny
+which has shaped his life much more than he knows, and which vitiates and
+renders nugatory all his social and other schemes! As man has narrowed the
+scope of woman’s life in that land, so she has given it intensity of
+power.
+
+And what is more significant, she has become supremely contented with the
+narrow sphere which man has grudgingly given her. And, for this very
+reason, she combats every endeavour, on the part of her friends, to
+release her from her bondage and to increase her opportunities and
+blessings in life. The old triple slander perpetrated upon India, to the
+effect that “it is a country in which the women never laugh, the birds
+never sing and the flowers have no fragrance,” is a falsehood in all its
+details. Hindu women have as merry a laugh as their sisters in any other
+land. They have learned to make the best of their lot and to rejoice in
+it.
+
+Since the time of the Mohammedan conquest, and probably long before, the
+higher class of women have mostly led a life of seclusion. This is
+preëminently true of the northern parts of the country where Mohammedan
+influence was strongest and the Hindu had carefully to protect his wife
+and daughters from the coarse Mussulman. In South India this seclusion is
+very rare and observed only among the most aristocratic. The common woman
+of India finds ample freedom of intercourse in her town and village, and
+figures conspicuously at the great religious festivals of her land.
+
+Generally speaking, woman is the redeeming feature of India. She is the
+ideal home-keeper and housekeeper. Usually, she is devoted to her husband,
+a passionate lover of her children, the conserver of society, the true
+devotee in religion. Her lord and husband has been taught, from time
+immemorial, to keep her in obscurity and to surround her with the screen
+of ignorance and narrow sympathies; but she has magnified the work
+assigned to her; her excellence has shown far beyond his; and, in her
+bondage, she has built her throne from which she has wielded her sceptre
+of love and goodness over him.
+
+She has never aspired to realms not granted to her by her lawgivers. The
+modern aspiration of the “new woman” of the West does not appeal to her.
+She asks only to be let alone in her narrow but, to her, all-sufficient
+sphere.
+
+2. But, after all we have said, or can say, of the power of woman in
+India, it still remains that, in no other land, has she suffered such
+marked disability and deeper injustice. If her goodness has shone out of
+her darkness, it has only served to reveal the more the sadness of her
+position. She bears in her condition the signs of her bondage and
+humiliation. The evils of the land have been attributed to her; and man
+too often ascribes his own degradation and sin to the curse breathed upon
+him by woman.
+
+The proverbs of a country are the truest test of its sentiments. What have
+these to say of the woman of India today?
+
+“What poison is that which appears like nectar? Woman.”
+
+“What is the chief gate to hell? Woman.”
+
+“What is cruel? The heart of a viper. What is more cruel? The heart of a
+woman. What is the most cruel of all? The heart of a soulless, penniless
+widow.”
+
+“He is a fool who considers his wife as his friend.”
+
+“Educating a woman is like putting a knife in the hands of a monkey.”
+
+These are a few of the many proverbs which characterize woman in one
+vernacular only. Every other Indian tongue equally abounds in proverbial
+expressions which brand a woman as one of the greatest evils of the land.
+Sanskrit writers have exhausted vituperative language in describing woman.
+They represent her as “wily, hypocritical, lying, deceptive, artful,
+fickle, freakish, vindictive, vicious, lazy, vain, dissolute,
+hard-hearted, sinful, petty-minded, jealous, addicted to simulation and
+dissimulation. She is worse than the worst of animals, more poisonous than
+the poison of vipers.”
+
+These proverbs do not necessarily reveal the depravity of the Hindu woman;
+but they do testify unmistakably to the estimation in which she is held by
+man.
+
+The ignorance of woman there is dense and is probably a fact which closely
+connects her with the proverbial expressions concerning her. Her
+illiteracy is not an incident in Indian life. It has been, through the
+centuries, a settled policy of the land. At the present time only one
+woman in two hundred can read and write in that land of progress. The
+remarkable thing is, not that so many are illiterate, but that even a few
+have been taught at all, in view of the attitude of the Hindu mind towards
+her. In ancient times there was little to learn, in India, apart from
+religion; but it has been the strict injunction of their Shastras and
+religious instructors that no man shall, under penalty of hell, teach to
+his wife or daughter the Vedas which are the purest and best part of Hindu
+Scriptures. Any form of useful knowledge was considered dangerous in her
+possession.
+
+It is not that woman is wanting in capacity. She is as bright and as
+teachable as her brother. All that she has needed, educationally, has been
+opportunity; and this, society has denied her, and this has done injustice
+not only to her but, still more, to itself.
+
+Infant marriage has been, for many centuries, a crying evil in that land.
+This has brought to woman a train of evils which have made deplorable her
+condition above all the women of the earth. This custom originated,
+probably, from a sense of kindness to the girl herself. It was the
+expression of a desire on the part of the parents to insure their
+daughter, at an early date, against failure to attain that which all
+Hindus regard as the _summum bonum_ of a woman’s life—marriage. But, in
+their short-sighted policy, they failed to realize the myriad evils which
+would follow this pernicious custom. The girl’s will or desire must not be
+regarded as an element in this life compact! And, what is worse still,
+these infant compacts are necessarily followed by early consummation,
+whereby girls enter, in many cases, upon the duties of motherhood at
+twelve years of age. Few, indeed, are permitted to reach full physical
+development before they assume the function of child-bearing. This is not
+only a serious evil to the woman herself, it also gives poor chance for
+the begetting of a healthy progeny and for the early training of the same.
+And it is not strange that the woman who thus early enters the sphere of
+motherhood should become a worn out old woman at thirty-five or forty
+years.
+
+Much effort has been put forth in India, by Westerners especially, to make
+infant marriages impossible, or at least unpopular. But, little success
+has thus far attended this effort.
+
+A small meed of alleviation was gained with much effort in 1891. It came
+through the passing of the “Age of Consent Bill” whereby the age of a
+girl’s consent to cohabitation was raised from ten to twelve. To a
+Westerner, the blessing acquired by this bill seems in itself a mockery
+and only reveals the appalling cruelty of that people to its girls.
+
+It has been found impossible to touch, much less remove, the gross evil of
+infant marriage itself, the custom which opens wide the door to other
+ghastly evils.
+
+The greatest of these is that of virgin-widowhood. If men will perversely
+marry their infant daughters to small boys, it is sure that a considerable
+proportion of the boys will die before their marriage is consummated.
+Thus, annually, thousands of these poor girls, who are in absolute
+ignorance of the situation, are converted into virgin widows whose
+condition, upon the death of their husbands, is instantly changed from one
+of innocent childhood pleasure into a sad, despised and hated widowhood.
+For, the parents of the boy sincerely believe that it is her evil star
+which has killed the boy whose destiny was blended with her own. And
+henceforth she is regarded, not only by the parents concerned, but by
+society in general, as an accursed person, hated for what has happened to
+her husband, and also a creature to be shunned. Her presence must not be
+allowed on any festive occasion, lest its evil influence bring sorrow and
+death to others. Thus a child of four or five years may suddenly have her
+prospects blasted, her life embittered and her company shunned by the
+whole world, with none to befriend, to cheer or to comfort her. There are
+two millions of such sad and injured ones in India today. Their cry goes
+up to God and to man in inarticulate appeal for relief and redress against
+a social custom and a religious rule which consigns them, in their time of
+greatest innocency, to a life which is worse than death itself and which
+robs them of the protection, love and sympathy which the whole economy of
+heaven and earth should guarantee to them.
+
+Coupled with this terrible fact is the other, that woman _must_ marry in
+India _anyhow_. No disgrace and misfortune can befall a woman, according
+to Hindu ideas, equal to that of spending her whole life in maidenhood.
+This, of course, is connected with the idea that she has no social status
+or religious destiny apart from man. Hence it is that a host of loving
+parents, who are unable to find a suitable match for their daughters,
+rather than leave them unmarried, stupidly join them in wedlock to
+_professional_ bridegrooms. There is, in Bengal, today, a division of the
+Brahman caste whose men are professional purveyors to this silly but
+prevalent superstition. They are prepared to marry any number of girls at
+remunerative rates. And thus they acquire a fair income. Each of these men
+have scores of such wives and entertains the proud satisfaction,
+doubtless, that he is bestowing a favour upon a benighted community by
+coupling his name in wedlock with unfortunate girls who otherwise would be
+without a name or hope among men! A state of society which renders such a
+condition of things possible is not only a disgrace to any community, it
+is a monstrous evil against the womanhood of that community. Is it any
+wonder, then, that so many of the women of India, under these
+circumstances, should commit suicide? Is it strange that a wife, in such a
+land, should find it best to obey and submit to the indignities of the
+worst kind from her husband? And is it remarkable that the Hindu widow,
+rather than endure the neglect, the temptations and the obloquy of her
+widowhood, should have preferred to practice Suttee and to end her
+miseries upon the funeral pyre of her husband? When we remember that their
+system consigns one-fifth of all the women of India—more than 20,000,000
+souls—to this despised and ostracized widow class, we realize the depth of
+evil which flows from the system.
+
+There is still another cruel injustice inflicted upon the womanhood of
+India. Many thousands (there are 12,000 in South India alone) of her
+daughters are dedicated in infancy to a life of shame in connection with
+temple worship in that land. These women, the so-called “servants of the
+gods,” have been mostly dedicated by fond mothers to this wretched life as
+a thank offering to the gods for blessings received. This seems very
+strange when it is known that all such girls thereby become public
+characters. The “Dancing Girl” of India is thus shut up to her evil life
+by those who love her most; and her religious profession becomes to her
+the highway to perdition and a bitter curse to society. Recent effort has
+been made, in Bombay, to save such girls by making it a legal offence to
+“marry” them to the gods and thus devoting them to a life of shame. But
+this law only refers to the dedication of girls of tender age in Bombay.
+It is exceedingly sad that, practically, the whole population is utterly
+indifferent to this greatest insult committed against the womanhood of
+India and to the coupling of their own religion and their gods with the
+ruin of the soul and body of many thousands of the daughters of the land.
+
+It is not remarkable, under these circumstances, that among all the people
+of India the birth of a daughter is the most unwelcome of domestic events.
+The evils which surely await her, and the greater possibilities of sorrow
+and suffering which surround her, the great burden of expense and of
+trouble which her training, and especially her marriage, will entail upon
+the family—all combine to make her birth a much dreaded event.
+
+The large expense, in the shape of the marriage dowry and the wedding
+expenses which have to be incurred among nearly all classes in connection
+with the disposal of their daughters, only make this situation the more
+emphatic.
+
+The practice of infanticide, so extensively found in India, was the direct
+result of this difficulty. For instance, among the noble race of Rajputs
+in North India it was found, some years ago, that, in a community of
+30,000, there was not a single girl! Every daughter that was born was
+killed. The higher the rank of the family the more constant and systematic
+was the crime. “Thus, while an unmarried daughter in India is looked upon
+as hopelessly disgraced, a son-in-law cannot always be found unless the
+father of the girl is prepared to pay highly, and the marriage of a
+daughter may mean the ruin of a family. Rather than incur this danger, the
+Rajput preferred that his daughter should perish. And though the
+government has enacted stringent laws against this custom, it is not
+entirely eradicated yet.”(10)
+
+Thus the Hindus have wittingly and unwittingly placed many of the most
+serious disabilities of life upon their women. And the greatest evil of it
+is that the woman has become so hardened to her lot that, like the
+prisoner of Chillon, she has become enamoured of her chains and is most
+loathe to part with her bondage.
+
+3. But the dawn of a new day has risen upon India. It is the day of
+woman’s emancipation. A new spirit, during the past century, has entered
+that land, and the welcome era of brighter blessing, greater appreciation
+and larger opportunity for woman has actually begun. One has only to study
+the laws which, during the nineteenth century, were enacted in India with
+a view to removing the terrible evils and crimes which were committed
+under the sanction of Hinduism; and he will find that not a few are
+directed towards the amelioration of the condition of woman. Such inhuman
+customs as _suttee_, the murder of children, the dedication of girls to
+lives of shame—these have been removed in whole or in part; and, by the
+“Age of Consent Bill” and other similar half measures, the beginning has
+been made in introducing a day of better things for the women.
+
+Many of the efforts of Hindu Social Reformers are directed towards the
+removal of some of the disabilities under which woman lives. It is true
+that the woman of India cannot expect, for a long time, much help from her
+own people. Even the Social Reformers among them are so few in number, are
+so half-hearted in their measures, and are so unwilling to deny themselves
+in behalf of the cause which they advocate, that little can be expected
+from them. And yet, it must be said that in a few matters of importance
+Hindu sentiment is slowly moving in the right direction. As a Social
+Reformer, the Hindu is a poor success; but he is not a fool; he can see
+that the situation, so far as woman is concerned, is becoming increasingly
+untenable and flagrantly inconsistent with the growing light of today. The
+hope is that he will yield, with increasing readiness, to the pressure
+brought to bear upon him by Western sentiment.
+
+The presence of many women of the West in that land has been a standing
+rebuke to the Hindu social situation. These women have done not a little
+to stir within their Eastern sisters a desire for something better. They
+open their eyes to the contrasted conditions of the women of the East and
+of the West. When they shall have aroused the women of India to the
+desperateness of their condition and to the urgent need of reform and
+relief, the battle will be more than half fought and victory will be in
+view. For, when the Eastern woman herself will vigorously demand her
+emancipation, man will yield it to her. The Dufferin Hospitals are a noble
+tribute to the active interest of the good lady whose name they bear; and
+the sympathetic endeavour of Lady Curzon for the elevation of India’s
+women are but suggestive of considerable work which the fair sex of the
+West have rendered and are rendering in behalf of their Indian sisters.
+
+Protestant Christian missions have been pioneers in this great movement
+towards the emancipation of the women of India. American and English
+women, connected with these missions, have given themselves to the
+redemption of their sisters. More than one thousand of these good women
+are devoting their lives to the salvation of India through the elevation
+of the women of the land. Thousands of schools are conducted by them in
+which a host of young girls are receiving that training which Hinduism has
+proscribed for many centuries. And through these schools, and by means of
+at least two thousand Bible Women, trained by them, they have access into
+hundreds of thousands of Hindu homes where they reveal to the women and
+girls a broader horizon of life and give a new conception of the
+privileges and opportunities which are opening today before them. They are
+creating among the women a spirit of unrest which is the dawning of a new
+ambition for greater things in life and service. The very presence of
+these foreign ladies suggests to their Indian sister a new sphere broader
+than the home, and a new opportunity pregnant with rich blessings to the
+land.
+
+Under the influence of these missionary efforts and of the less thorough
+training given in government schools, Hindus themselves are beginning to
+bestir themselves and to establish schools for their daughters; and thus
+we trust that coming years will not only witness a change of thought among
+Hindus concerning women, but also a new line of indigenous activity for
+their elevation.
+
+There is further ground for encouragement; for the Hindu man of culture is
+growing increasingly sensitive to the wide gulf which lies between him and
+his absolutely untrained wife. He sees that, while the Western woman is
+suited in every way to become the companion of, and a helpmeet to, her
+husband, his own little wife is fit to be neither. Even when not separated
+from him by a disparity of many years in age, he finds that she has
+absolutely no interest outside the walls of her home and has not the first
+qualification to discuss with him or to help him by advice in any matter
+pertaining to his work or profession. So he, under the new light of modern
+times, is increasingly ambitious to have a wife of the new training and of
+the larger horizon, and is willing to pay a premium for her in marriage.
+And this, itself, is beginning to create a market for educated women even
+in that stronghold of conservatism, the Brahman caste.
+
+Thus the effort of Christian missions in the development of womanhood is
+acting like leaven upon the whole social mass.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               Chapter VI.
+
+
+THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN EFFORT IN INDIA.
+
+
+Christianity found very early entrance into India. How early we cannot
+definitely say. The Syrian Church of Malabar traces its legendary origin
+to the “doubting disciple,” by whose name it loves to be called. The
+Romish Church also warmly supports this contention and exalts St. Thomas
+to a high place as the Patron Saint and Apostle of India.
+
+Careful historical investigation entirely overthrows this old claim. The
+Thomas legends probably owe their existence to the natural desire of the
+Syrian Christians to connect their history with Apostolic origin and
+sanction. The name may also be confounded with a later Thomas, several of
+whom were conspicuous in the annals of the India Syrian Church.
+
+The ancient vagueness of the name “India,” has also, doubtless, had no
+little influence in the formation of these legends. In the beginning of
+the Christian era “India” was a term of much wider application than at
+present. It included several countries in Southwestern Asia, and even a
+portion of Africa. While St. Thomas may therefore have laboured and died
+in “India,” it does not at all follow that his field of labour was within
+the limits of the peninsula now called by that name. Indeed, many
+historical incidents and facts agree in disproving Apostolic connection
+with the rise of Christianity in India.
+
+Pantænus, the saintly and learned Presbyter and Christian philosopher of
+Alexandria and the renowned teacher of the illustrious church fathers,
+Clement and Origen, is the first honoured name which finds historic
+sanction in the grand roll of Christian missionaries to India. He visited
+Malabar, South India, during the last decade of the second century. He was
+a man wonderfully equipped by deep spiritual insight and piety and also by
+philosophic training and metaphysical acumen to become the messenger of
+Christian truth and life to the Buddhists and Brahmans who lived side by
+side in South India in those days.
+
+We know little of his work in that land. He found in Malabar a colony of
+Jewish Christians who possessed a copy of the Gospel of Matthew in the
+Hebrew tongue, said to have been given to them by the Apostle Bartholomew.
+It is not known, however, whether this last named apostle laboured among
+these Christians in that region.
+
+Probably a century later that Christian community formed connection with
+Antioch, Syria, which was the first of all Christian missionary centres;
+but which, through its Nestorian faith, soon lost its missionary ardour.
+
+1. And thus emerges out of the darkness into its long and unique history
+the Syrian Church of Malabar.
+
+It has passed through many vicissitudes and has lost much, if not all, of
+its positive Christian influence and missionary character. During a recent
+visit to that region I was saddened by the sight of this Christian
+community which had lived all these centuries in the centre of a heathen
+district with apparently no concern for the religious condition of the
+surrounding, non-Christian, masses—content to be as a separate caste
+without religious influence upon, or ambition to bring Christ into the
+life of, its benighted neighbours.
+
+This church has survived its own apathy, on the one side, and Roman
+Catholic inquisition on the other, and appears before the world as what it
+really is—the only indigenous Christian Church in the peninsula of India.
+It enjoys the unique distinction of having lived more than a millennium
+and a half in a heathen land, for a thousand years of which it was
+entirely surrounded by a non-Christian people.
+
+During the last half century it has been considerably influenced by the
+work and example of the Church Missionary Society which is established in
+that region. Through this influence a Reformed Syrian Church has come into
+existence which promises to do much for the whole community in ideals and
+life. The Syrian Church has hitherto been greatly cursed with the trinity
+of evils—ignorance, ceremonialism and superstition. It was not until 1811
+(at the suggestion of an Englishman) that it translated a part of the
+Bible (the four gospels) into the vernacular. And this is the only
+translation of the Scriptures ever made and published by the natives of
+India.
+
+The Syrian Church now numbers 248,741. That part of the Syrian community
+which the Romish Church compelled, by the inquisition, to unite with it
+numbers 322,586.
+
+2. From the fourteenth century the ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH has continued to
+send out her emissaries and missionaries to that land.
+
+Jordanus and his brave band of missionary associates were her first
+representatives.
+
+But it was only from the arrival of Vasco da Gama and the Portuguese
+conquest four centuries ago, that the influence of that Church began to be
+seriously felt and its triumphs recorded.
+
+By the sword and cruel Inquisition not only were Syrian Christians
+compelled to transfer their allegiance to the Pope; non-Christians also
+were, for perhaps the second time in the long history of the land,
+subjected to the bitter restraints and inhuman inflictions of religious
+persecution. It is a curious fact that the hideous and bloody monster of
+religious intolerance was hardly known in India until, first, the
+followers of Mohammed and, secondly, the disciples of the meek and lowly
+Jesus began to invade the land.
+
+Then follow the devoted and heroic labours of the saintly Xavier. He was a
+man of princely extraction, of royal bearing, of Christian devotion and
+self-denial. He wrought, according to his light, with supreme loyalty to
+his Lord and with a divine passion for souls in South India. Many
+thousands of the poor fishermen on the coast was he permitted to baptize
+into the Christian faith. It is much to be regretted that, like nearly all
+subsequent Romish missionaries, he gave himself, all but exclusively, to
+the ceremonial salvation, rather than to the ethical transformation and
+the spiritual regeneration, of the people. It has always been a much
+easier thing, in India, to gather the people for the reception of the
+mystical ordinances of our faith than it has been to prepare them, by
+patient teaching and guidance, to exemplify its precepts by their lives.
+
+After Xavier came the accomplished and wily Jesuit, Robert de
+Nobilibus—the nephew of Cardinal Bellarmine. A believer in the Jesuitical
+principle that the end justifies the means, and ardently desiring to bring
+the Brahmans over to his faith he proclaimed himself, and in every way
+assumed the rôle of, “the Western Brahman.” He lived scrupulously as a
+member of that haughty caste and, until recalled by the Pope on account of
+his deception, wielded much influence over the Brahmanical hierarchy in
+Madura.
+
+Men of great power and supreme devotion to their faith followed as
+representatives of that great Church in India. Such names as de Britto,
+Beschi, the Abbe du Bois are a crown of honour to that community. Many
+like them spent lives of great self-denial for the cause of Christ and
+faithfully wrought for the redemption of the people; so that at present
+the power of the Romish Church and the devoted energy of its leaders are
+known in every section of the Peninsula. After nearly six centuries of
+effort its community in India has reached the total of 1,524,000 souls.
+For a long time, it has not enjoyed much increase in its membership. In
+many places it finds numerous accessions; but not a few of its people
+backslide and return to their ancestral faith. The marked defects of
+Romanism in that land have been its concessions to, and compromise with,
+the religion of the land both on the side of idolatrous worship and of
+caste observance. I have discussed the subject with Indian Roman Catholics
+in the villages and find that to them the worship of saints, through their
+many obtrusive images, is practically the same as the idolatry of the
+Hindus—the only marked difference being in the greater size of the Romish
+images! In like manner the Jesuit has adopted and incorporated into his
+religion, for the people of that land, the Hindu caste system with all its
+hideous unchristian divisions. All this makes the bridge which separates
+Hinduism from Roman Catholic Christianity a very narrow one; and it
+reduces to a minimum the process of “conversion” from the former faith to
+the latter. But an easy path from Hinduism to Christianity means an
+equally facile way of return to the ancestral faith. If the Hindu has
+little to surrender in becoming a Christian, neither has such a Christian
+any serious obstacle to prevent his return to Hindu gods and ceremonies
+when it suits his convenience to do so. Hence it is that the new
+accessions to Romanism hardly exceed the number of those who leave it in
+order to resume their allegiance to the faith of their fathers.
+
+3. PROTESTANT MISSIONARY EFFORT began late. In India it was introduced
+with the Dutch conquest in the early part of the seventeenth century. But
+the proselytizing methods of the Dutch in those days savoured too much of
+the Romish inquisition under the Portuguese. When the pressure of
+religious compulsion by the civil government was removed, consequent upon
+the English conquest in Ceylon and India, the people apostatized in a
+body.
+
+(_a_) It was not until the truly Christian King, Frederick IV. of Denmark,
+took, himself, a religious interest in that land at the beginning of the
+eighteenth century, and sent, at his own expense, the first two Protestant
+missionaries to Tranquebar on the east coast, that really consistent
+Protestant effort for the redemption of India began.
+
+Zeigenbalg and Plutschau, the two pioneers who were sent to Tranquebar,
+arrived in 1706. They inaugurated the great work of Protestant
+Christianity for the spiritual regeneration of India, and will always find
+an honoured place among the heroes of the cross.
+
+Zeigenbalg was a man of great piety and of intellectual resources. He died
+in 1719 after a most successful service of unremitting toil. He gathered
+hundreds of converts into the Christian fold, established schools and
+erected a beautiful church edifice which stands today as the oldest
+Protestant Mission Church in the East. Above all, he felt that an open
+Bible in the vernacular was essential to the conversion of India; and he
+therefore gave himself to the translation of God’s Word. He was not able
+to complete this work; it did not issue from the press until 1725. This
+Tamil version of the Bible was the first translation of God’s Word in
+India and in all the East; and it stands today as a monument to his
+intelligent labours and to those of his worthy successor, Schultze. It
+also represents the beginning of a new era of missionary effort in the
+country. The Roman Catholics, during all their stay in that land have done
+nothing towards giving to the people the Bible in their native tongue. It
+was not until the year 1857 that, stirred by Protestant example, they
+published their first and only translation of any portion of God’s Word in
+any of the South India vernaculars—that of the Tamil Gospels and the Acts
+of the Apostles.
+
+Schultze spent fifteen years in Madras and left a congregation of 700
+persons there. From Tranquebar, as a centre, missionary effort spread
+extensively throughout the Madras Presidency. This was done through German
+missionaries supported mainly by English funds furnished by the Society
+for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge.
+
+Perhaps the most commanding figure connected with that work and century
+was Frederick Schwartz, the missionary statesman and apostle who arrived
+in India in 1750. His efforts extended throughout the Kingdom of Tanjore
+and even to the Madura and Tinnevelly districts. Through all these regions
+his power was felt and, in company with a few other worthy souls, he
+laboured with distinguished faith, wisdom and heroism. The Protestant
+Native Church which has so flourished in Tinnevelly and Madura found its
+origin and first success under his guidance. He spent forty-eight years in
+unremitting effort, influenced powerfully all missionaries who came in
+contact with him, and passed on to his reward in 1798.
+
+Thus, before the close of the last century, at least 50,000 Tamilians had
+been baptized in connection with this Protestant effort. When we bear in
+mind the fewness of the agents, and the very limited tract of country
+which they occupied, it is a matter of considerable astonishment that so
+many converts were every year baptized in the various missions. In
+Tranquebar alone, in nineteen years, there were 19,340 persons baptized;
+and during the century, the entire number of converts was nearly, if not
+quite, double this amount. In Madras, as many as 4,000 natives were
+received into the Christian church. The Cuddalore Mission, notwithstanding
+its great troubles, yielded between 1,000 and 2,000 converts; the
+Trichinopoly Mission, more than 2,000; the Tanjore Mission, about 1,500;
+and the mission established at Palamcottah in Tinnevelly in 1785, also a
+few.
+
+It is impossible to know exactly the number of the native Protestant
+Christian churches and congregations existing at the beginning of the last
+century, or the number of the Christian community in the Presidency.
+
+Probably only a few thousand remained to await the dawn of the new
+century.
+
+From Madras, down South as far as Palamcottah, infant Christian
+communities existed. But they did not largely flourish until new
+missionary societies were organized and a larger force of missionary
+workers were sent to strengthen and push forward the work established.
+
+And it is very unfortunate that, with much good, not a little evil was
+found among these few Christians whom the eighteenth century bestowed upon
+the nineteenth. Mr. Sherring truly says,—“That many of the converts were
+sincere and genuine, we cannot doubt. Yet it is certain that the
+permission to retain their caste customs and prejudices throws
+considerable suspicion on the spiritual work accomplished among them. The
+Danish and German missionaries soon perceived the formidable influence of
+caste as an opponent of the Gospel, unless they were ready, like the Roman
+Catholics, to enlist it on their side, by permitting it to be retained in
+the Christian churches established by them. They chose to make caste a
+friend rather than an enemy. In doing this, however, while they made their
+path easier, they sacrificed their principles. They admitted an element
+into their midst which acted on the Christian community like poison.” And
+this poison is still exercising a potent influence upon a no small portion
+of the Protestant Native Church in South India. A bad beginning in this
+respect has facilitated an evil continuance.
+
+The closing years of the eighteenth century carry our interest to North
+India and are notable as the beginning of the organized missionary effort
+of the English people for the redemption of India.
+
+(_b_) The Anglo-Saxons seem to have been the last among Christian peoples
+to awake from the lethargy of a self-centred, self-seeking Christianity,
+and to enter upon the great missionary campaign for the conquest of the
+world for Christ. It is true that the Society for the Propagation of the
+Gospel received its first charter in 1701. But for more than a century of
+its history it did not concern itself about carrying the Gospel to the
+heathen races. It seems strange that, up to that time, both the Protestant
+clergy and laymen of Great Britain and America felt little or none of that
+sense of obligation for the conversion of the non-Christian world to
+Christ which has now become so universal a conviction and a passion among
+them.
+
+            [Illustration: American Church In Southern India.]
+
+In the work of rousing the English to this grand world-wide enterprise
+William Carey acquired well-earned distinction. Though of humble origin
+and wanting in early training, his spiritual vision and contagious
+enthusiasm made him a leader of power. Thus, God chose a cobbler youth to
+lead the Christian hosts of England out of the bondage of narrow religious
+sympathies into a world-wide conquest of souls for Christ. Carey’s efforts
+in England were unremitting, and the contagion of his burning altruism
+spread everywhere notwithstanding much opposition and contempt met from a
+certain class.
+
+His early efforts at home were supplemented by a missionary life in India
+so remarkable in its self-denying devotion, so characterized by
+distinguished ability and linguistic genius, and so notable in wisdom and
+persistence under the greatest difficulties that his name will ever stand
+preëminent in all the annals of missionary effort.
+
+But it was very sad that, while _Christian_ England was waking out of her
+lethargy to her spiritual opportunities and duties in India, _commercial_
+England threw herself across the path and denied the right of Christian
+service for the Christless people of that land.
+
+Carey found no welcome or even permission to work in British India. He was
+compelled to flee from the territory of the East India Company and to find
+refuge and opportunity for missionary work under the more enlightened and
+progressive rule of the Danish in Serampore. It was from that place that
+he directed his missionary effort in India and found the long-sought
+opportunity to serve his Master in that heathen land. It was there that,
+in company with his worthy associates, Marshman and Ward, he built up a
+Christian community and translated and published the Word of God into many
+oriental tongues. The success and achievements of Carey would be regarded
+as phenomenal in the case of any missionary. But when it is remembered
+that he was compelled to support himself and his mission, in considerable
+part, through his income in secular pursuits; when it is also known that
+his wife was, for many years, a wreck, mentally, and therefore a source of
+great care and anxiety to him, how wonderful must have been his faith, his
+persistence, his intellectual endowments and his love for the people of
+India to have led him to accomplish so much for the cause of Christ in
+that great land!
+
+Carey’s life and example wrought wonders in its influence upon others of
+his countrymen. Among a noble band of followers is found the devout and
+pious enthusiast Henry Martyn who, during his too brief career as a
+chaplain in India, found time to commend his Master and His Faith to many
+in that land of darkness and death. Martyn was a worthy example of what a
+consecrated chaplain can do for the Christian cause, beyond the strict
+performance of his priestly functions—an example which was perhaps never
+more needed in India than at present when so wide a gulf is found between
+the ordinary chaplain and the missionary.
+
+As a result of this missionary revival there also came into existence not
+a few hopeful, vigorous missionary societies. First among them was the
+London Missionary Society which entered, in 1795, upon its grand career of
+world-wide endeavour. After that, was organized (in 1799) the Church
+Missionary Society. Both of these organizations, at the opening of the new
+century, began to put forth their best energies for the salvation of
+India. Then a host of other lesser, but equally determined, agencies
+followed in their train and made India their special field of activity.
+
+In addition to distinctively English societies there were organized, also,
+separate Scotch, Irish and Welsh movements for work in the land—each
+nation vying with every other in the work of upbuilding there the Kingdom
+of Christ.
+
+Among the British societies the Church Missionary Society, the Society for
+the Propagation of the Gospel, and the London Missionary Society have done
+most extensive service and have been markedly blessed with growing
+communities and effective organizations for work among the people.
+
+Each nationality also represents a separate type of life and activity. The
+English missions, for instance, are strong in their wise organization and
+effective administration. The Scotch, on the other hand, have a genius for
+thoroughness in everything, especially in educational work. The names of
+the greatest missionary educators of India are, almost without exception,
+Scotch. They have dug deep foundations and have aimed, by means of their
+splendid schools, to excel in the work of directing the thought of, and
+imparting a new philosophy to, the rising generation of Indians. If their
+results have not been statistically impressive, so far as converts are
+concerned, they have had preëminence in the task of transforming the
+thought and of leavening the institutions of the land. For instance,
+Alexander Duff—the father of the higher educational work of missions, a
+man mighty in thought and kindled with a sublime faith and a Christian
+enthusiasm—did not number many converts as the result of his college
+training of the young. But every convert under him counted for something
+in the Christian Church. It is said that, of the forty-eight educated men
+who were won to Christ through his mission in 1871, nine were ministers,
+ten were catechists, seventeen were professors and high-grade teachers,
+eight, government servants of the higher grade, and four, assistant
+surgeons and doctors. Similar to the work of Dr. Duff in Calcutta was the
+work of Dr. Wilson in Bombay and is the effort of Dr. Miller, at present,
+in Madras. Mission results must be weighed as well as measured.
+
+As a contrast to this thought-directing and leavening work of the Scottish
+Churches may be placed the work of the Salvation Army in India. This
+unique organization invaded that great land nearly a quarter of a century
+ago. Believing that existing missionary organizations and methods of work
+were too dignified, staid and inadequate for best results, the leaders of
+this movement introduced its cyclone methods and proposed to take India by
+storm. They began by insisting upon all their European officers conforming
+to native custom, in clothing and diet. Their appeal was simple even if
+their work was narrow and noisy. It was a call upon all to immediate
+repentance and to a belief upon the Lord, Christ, for salvation. They
+ignored the Sacraments of the Church and, for a while, even emulated the
+Hindus by daubing their religious emblems upon their foreheads.
+
+But their appeal fell flat upon a people who had no Christian heritage or
+training; and their genuine forms of self-denial and methods of
+adaptation, instead of producing popular admiration and attachment, soon
+produced pity and even contempt. If the officers were men of spiritual
+ardour and were kindled with a passion for the salvation of India, they
+were also, on the whole, untrained and uncultured. They not only disobeyed
+their Lord in neglecting the Sacraments, they did not and could not
+understand the people and their religion. By ignoring all sanitary rules
+many of them vainly sacrificed their lives to the Cause.
+
+Considering the money expended, the precious lives sacrificed and the
+efforts exhausted during this quarter of a century the results achieved by
+this organization have been painfully, though not unexpectedly, small. It
+clearly illustrates and emphasizes the fact that India is not to be won
+for Christ by a campaign of ignorance and noise, however largely it may be
+enforced by altruistic fervour. And it should not be forgotten that the
+army officers have not scrupled to enter territory already occupied by
+Christian missions, to cause unspeakable annoyance to workers on the
+field, and to fill up more than half the ranks of their “soldiers” with
+people who already claimed allegiance to Christ in connection with
+well-established missions.
+
+(_c_) Australia has recently fallen into the ranks of those who carry the
+Gospel to India. One Faith Mission in Western India is almost entirely
+conducted by men and women of that country. A Baptist Mission also is
+maintained by them there. And not a few of the strong members of British
+missions are Australians; these, with their work, are supported by the
+churches which sent them forth.
+
+(_d_) Protestant Europe has not been conspicuous for its missionary
+effort. And yet India owes a large debt to the Christians of the
+Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and Sweden for their effort to present to
+them the message of life. As we have seen, the Dutch, upon their first
+conquest in the East, sought to introduce their faith among the people.
+The first Protestant missionaries who gave their life for India were
+Danes. They were supported by the private resources of their own king. In
+early times Danish settlements in India were the refuge of Gospel
+messengers to that land. They protected them against the unchristian
+narrowness and persecution of the East India Company. The Danish
+settlement of Serampore gave the only opportunity to Carey and his
+associates for a home and for missionary work.
+
+The Bible was the first time translated into an Indian vernacular (Tamil)
+by our Continental brethren, and the first vernacular Christian books were
+printed in Germany.
+
+At the present time they are giving themselves more fully than ever before
+to the work of India’s redemption. There are eight Continental Missions
+conducted there, some of which have achieved considerable success. The
+Leipzig Evangelical Lutheran Mission has fallen heir to the first Danish
+mission established at Tranquebar. It has at present a strong force of
+workers, and they are scattered through several Districts in South India,
+are doing solid and substantial work and have gathered a numerous
+Christian community.
+
+Perhaps the most successful of these European missions is the Basil German
+Evangelical Mission, which is established upon the southwestern coast. It
+is well organized, has a thorough educational system and is embued with a
+strong evangelistic spirit. Connected with this mission is an extensive
+and prosperous Industrial Mission. With the German spirit of thoroughness
+they have developed, more largely than any other mission in India, the
+industrial department, until it is now well established and fully
+self-supporting.
+
+All these European missions are systematic and painstaking in the work
+which they are carrying forward. In some respects this gives them
+well-earned distinction. But, on the other hand, they labour under a
+serious disability in having to acquire the English as well as the
+vernacular of the people after arriving in the land. They are also
+extremely conservative, not to say antiquated, in their methods; and they
+have not, in most cases, learned to hate and antagonize, as they should,
+the terrible caste system of the country.
+
+(_e_) The American participation in the Christian conquest of India began
+early. It was the perusal of the Life of David Brainerd, the American
+missionary saint, which kindled the missionary zeal of William Carey in
+England. On the other hand, the Life of Carey had no small influence, at
+the beginning of the nineteenth century, in giving irresistible impulse
+and definiteness of purpose to that noble band of American missionary
+pioneers—Mills and Nott, Newell and Judson. And their consecrated
+enthusiasm and purpose to labour for the conversion of the heathen
+nations, in its turn, led, in 1810, to the founding of the first foreign
+missionary society in the United States—the American Board of
+Commissioners for Foreign Missions.
+
+The first field chosen by this society for its activity was India. It
+represented to them both the greatest need and the best opportunity for
+Christian work.
+
+Thus the first organized attempt of the Christian Church of America to
+reach and to redeem the heathen world was directed towards the land of the
+Vedas. And the first band of missionaries which that, now venerable, Board
+sent forth into the harvest went, with eager anticipation and earnest
+prayer, to that ancient and benighted people.
+
+But how great must have been their disappointment and sorrow, upon their
+arrival, to be refused permission by the Honourable East India Company to
+land in Calcutta. With sad hearts they turned their faces towards Bombay,
+hoping that God would open the way to their entering upon missionary
+service there. This again was denied them and they fled to Cochin, but
+were seized and brought back to Bombay to await the arrival of an American
+ship to convey them home. It was just then that their prayer was answered
+and the Lord of Hosts came to their succour and opened wide the door of
+that land to the missionary labourer. A new charter was granted by the
+British Parliament to the East India Company. In that, insistence was made
+that the Christian missionary be permitted to prosecute his work for the
+heathen of that land unmolested. This charter was granted in 1813, while
+the Americans were still held in durance in Bombay.
+
+It was the Magna Charta of missions for India; and from that time until
+this the Christian missionary has found permission to preach his message
+in that land. He has also enjoyed there ample protection in the exercise
+of all his religious duties and work as a messenger of Christ. By this
+charter missions received State sanction to obey heaven’s command, and
+missionaries of all lands came to enjoy, on British territory in the East,
+the undisputed right to carry the gospel of our Lord to heathen people.
+
+The impatient little band of missionaries were therefore released at
+Bombay; and from that day until this America has found joy in her effort
+to convey her spiritual blessings to that land. Adoniram Judson, having
+become a Baptist, was directed by Carey to Burma where he laboured for
+many years with apostolic zeal and with distinguished success. The nearly
+150,000 native Christians of Burma today owe their conversion largely to
+Judson’s wise initiative, resistless energy, grand Christian faith and
+inspiring example.
+
+Mills, who was the leader in the early band of students whose zeal led to
+the organization of the American Board, found his field of service on the
+West coast of Africa, whence also he was early called to his heavenly
+reward.
+
+The saintly Harriet Newell, wife of another member of this distinguished
+company, died on the Isle of France, and her sorrowing husband returned to
+Bombay and rejoined his brethren Hall and Nott. These three, therefore,
+were the founders of this first American Mission in India—now called the
+American Mahratta Mission. Bombay, Ahmednaggar and Sholapur are its
+principal centres of work; and it covers a field whose population is
+between three and four millions. It has had distinguished success and has
+gathered the largest native community among the Protestant missions of
+Western India.
+
+In 1834 the same society established its South India Mission at Madura.
+This was an offshoot from the Jaffna Mission which was founded in 1815 in
+that northern corner of Ceylon. The Madura Mission has prospered, has
+18,000 in its Christian community, and is regarded as one of the best
+organized missions in the country.
+
+In 1834 the American Presbyterians, while yet connected with the American
+Board, established in the Northwest their large and successful mission.
+Its centres of work are Lahore, Lodiana, Futtegarh, Dera-Dun and
+Allahabad. This mission has done excellent work and has attained high
+eminence among the missions of North India, both for its educational work,
+its leavening influence and for its evangelistic zeal. A number of its
+missionaries suffered martyrdom during the terrible Sepoy Mutiny of 1857.
+It was from that mission that the first call to universal prayer for the
+conversion of the world was sent forth. And thus was founded the Week of
+Prayer which now finds such general observance among Protestant
+Christians.
+
+           [Illustration: College Hall Of The Madura Mission.]
+
+In 1836 the Baptists established for Telugu people, on the southeastern
+coast, the famous “Lone Star Mission.” It has had such phenomenal success
+that, though established only in 1840 in a purely heathen field, and
+notwithstanding the fact that the first twenty-five years of its efforts
+were barren of outward results, it is to-day by far the largest mission in
+India, having 53,790 communicants and a community of 200,000. Its chief
+centres of work are Ongole and Nellore.
+
+The Rev. Samuel Day was sent out by the society in 1835 to Chicacole, but
+in 1837 removed to Madras. After three years’ labour there he resolved to
+establish a mission among the Telugu people, and so removed to Nellore and
+commenced work there in March, 1840. The unproductiveness of the work in
+the early history was such that the abandonment of the mission was several
+times under consideration. But in 1866 prosperity dawned. Later followed
+the great accessions which have, up to the present, continued in greater
+or less degree and which have been on a larger scale than in any other
+field in South India. “The history of Christianity, in all ages and
+countries, shows nothing which surpasses the later years of this mission
+in spontaneous extension, in rapidity of progress, in genuineness of
+conversions, in stability of results or in promise for the future.” The
+church organized with eight members by Dr. Clough at Ongole in 1867
+numbers now its thousands. The great famine of 1877 presented a large
+Christian opportunity which was eagerly seized by Dr. Clough, himself a
+civil engineer, in the conduct of large famine relief works under
+government and in the Christian instruction of many thousands who laboured
+under him. This itself created a wonderful movement which has been
+marvellously used of God in the conversion of the people. Nearly all of
+these converts have come from the lowest class of society. But at present
+the higher classes are beginning to consider the claims of the Gospel. It
+is natural that the most serious problem and principal concern of this
+mission has been to keep pace with the movement, and to train suitable
+agents for the guidance and instruction of the incoming thousands. It has
+also been largely blessed in this line, as its various and growing
+institutions testify.
+
+As the Madura Mission was the daughter of the Jaffna Mission so the Madras
+section of the Madura Mission, in the year 1851, became the mother of a
+vigorous daughter. For the members of the Scudder family—a family famed in
+missionary annals—were appointed to the District of Arcot, some seventy
+miles south of Madras, and there began a work under the American Dutch
+Reformed Church which has rapidly grown into power and promise.
+
+In the year 1856 the Methodists of America entered upon their great work
+in that land. With their wonted zeal and evangelistic fervour they carried
+forward a vigorous campaign in North India. They early found an opening
+among the outcaste people as the Baptists had found among the same in the
+South; and they eagerly entered the open door and vigorously prosecuted
+their endeavours for that class. Their success has been signal. More than
+100,000 people have been gathered into their Christian community and an
+equal number of others are desirous to place themselves under their
+spiritual care and guidance. They have also entered seriously into the
+work of training an agency and of educating the densely ignorant members
+of their community. In addition to their village schools they have a large
+theological and normal school, besides two colleges, one of which is
+perhaps the best college for women in Northern India, if not in the East.
+Their work has now spread to many parts of the land and even to Burma and
+the Straits settlement. They have also wisely cultivated the press and the
+publishing department as an important auxiliary in their work. In this
+department they are perhaps doing more than any other society now at work
+in India.
+
+The great success of this society in India is largely owing to the wise
+leadership of that missionary statesman—Bishop Thoburn. I doubt whether
+many other missionaries, if indeed any other, have wrought more for the
+redemption of that people than this sturdy American of ample common—and
+uncommon—sense, of wide vision, of sublime faith and of masterful
+generalship.
+
+Several divisions of the American Lutheran community have also wrought
+much for India and are justly proud of their prosperous missions,
+especially in South India.
+
+In like manner American “Faith Missions,” not a few, have planted the
+banner of the cross in that land of the trident and are prosecuting their
+mission and proclaiming their message with singleness of purpose and
+exemplary zeal. The “Christian Alliance” is the most pretentious
+organization of this class which does work in that land. Its efforts are
+chiefly confined to the Bombay Presidency where it has a goodly number of
+earnest workers.
+
+Organizations for the young—the Y. M. C. A., Y. W. C. A., Y. P. S. C. E.,
+S. V. M.,—while they are not in any sense distinctly American, are
+nevertheless dominated by the American spirit and methods, and are, to a
+large extent under the guidance of American youth. These Christian
+movements are doing royal service for the Kingdom of Christ in that
+stronghold of error. They bring cheer to the missionaries, youthful
+inspiration to the churches, a wide opportunity to the young life of the
+Christian communities and a new pace to all the messengers of Christ in
+the land. The Y. M. C. A. is also doing an excellent evangelistic work
+among the educated non-Christian youth of India—a work that is appealing
+mightily to their deepest spiritual instincts and is impressing them, as
+nothing else does, with the combined sanity and spirituality, the
+reasonableness and the saving power of our faith.
+
+I must also allude to that unique American Institution—the Haskell-Barrows
+lectureship—which has already done no small good to the educated of the
+land, and has within itself the possibility of largest blessing to the
+country. It was founded in connection with the University of Chicago; and
+it appoints and sends to India once every two or three years a
+distinguished lecturer to present the excellence of our faith in its
+philosophy and life in such a manner as shall best commend it and appeal
+to the thoughtful non-Christians of the Orient. Every effort of this kind
+which shall emphasize to Hindus the harmony of Christian truth and the
+best thinking of our age and shall reveal to them Christ as the Redeemer
+and Exemplar of our race and as the only “Name under heaven given among
+men whereby we must be saved,” is to be cordially welcomed among God’s
+best forces for India’s redemption. And America is to be congratulated
+because she is the first to endow and to inaugurate such a helpful agency
+for the glory of God and the salvation of India’s men of culture.
+
+It is comforting to the American worker in India to be assured that the
+modern rulers of the land are amply atoning for the unchristian and rude
+incivility of their predecessors in office ninety years ago. For they not
+only cordially welcome the Christian worker from the States; they also
+reveal full appreciation of his labours, render him every protection and
+are not averse to praising him for his arduous endeavours. Listen to the
+words of Lord Wenlock, while Governor of Madras,—“Our cousins in America,”
+he says, “are not, as we are, responsible for the welfare of a very large
+number of the human race; but seeing our difficulties and knowing how much
+there is to do, they have not hesitated to put their hands into their
+pockets to assist us in doing that which is almost impossible for any
+government to achieve unassisted. They go out themselves, their wives and
+their sisters; they enter into all parts of the country, they send a very
+large amount of money and they spend their time and their health in
+promoting the welfare of those who are in no way connected with them....
+In all Districts I find our American cousins joining with us in improving
+the system of education and in extending it wherever it was wanted. To
+their efforts we owe a very great deal. It must be recognized that their
+great object is the advancement of the Christian religion.”
+
+Lord Harris, the Governor, of Bombay, a little more than a decade ago,
+also said publicly, of the work of the American Board Mission among the
+Maharattas,—“I do not think I can too prominently say that our gratitude
+towards this American Mission has been piling up and piling up all the
+years of this century.”
+
+4. Our record of the efforts of Christian countries in behalf of India
+were not complete without a reference to the hearty coöperation of
+Protestant Canada in this work. Several missions have been established
+there by Canadian Baptists and Presbyterians; and these are flourishing
+and are adding daily to the number of those who are being saved.
+
+Looking at the whole force of Protestant Christian missions in that land
+today we are impressed with the magnitude of its organization, work and
+success. Nearly two and a half million dollars are devoted annually by the
+Christians of the West to this work of saving this great one of the East.
+It is a great financial investment, but not to be compared with that of
+the thousands of choice men and women who go forth and give themselves
+unto death that they might enable Christ to see of the travail of His soul
+and be satisfied among the millions of that land.
+
+Comparing present missionary agency and methods in India with those of
+past ages it may be well to consider the differences and gather therefrom
+assurance for the coming of the Kingdom of our Lord in the East. These
+differences are numerous and radical. I need only refer to a few of them:—
+
+(_a_) The spell of an ecclesiastical, and the glamour of a ceremonial,
+Christianity is being increasingly substituted by the moral and spiritual
+characteristics of our faith in that land. The conversion of India is less
+and less regarded by Christian workers in the land as a change from the
+ceremonial and ritual of the old, to those of the new, faith. Ever
+increasing emphasis is given to the fact that to be a Christian is to live
+the Christ-life and to be loyal to Him in all the ethical and spiritual
+teachings of the Sermon on the Mount. And these missionary workers care
+less to touch the life of our converts on the surface and more to grip it
+at its centre and to transform character. And this is a work which is most
+enduring in its results.
+
+(_b_) Christian workers in India are learning mutual sympathy and
+appreciation in their work. Instead of the old jealousies, suspicions,
+antipathies and misunderstandings of the past, there is found a developing
+sense of oneness, of fellowship, of comity, amity and mutual helpfulness
+among the missionaries of that land. The watchword of to-day is
+coöperation. The distracting spectacle of a divided Christianity, of hated
+and mutually hating Christian sects in a heathen land is surely passing
+away and the dawning of the day of peace and harmony and fellowship in
+Christian work is upon us. And India will enjoy the wonderful results of
+this.
+
+(_c_) The serious mistakes of method and standpoint in missions of former
+centuries are now avoided. The compromise which they made with Hinduism in
+caste and in other matters is no longer possible in Protestant missions.
+We know, as they could not, the irreconcilable antagonism of caste to
+Christianity.
+
+On the other hand we know Hinduism and other non-Christian faiths better
+than our fathers did. We are not so anxious to trace all these back to
+Satanic origin. We are learning the sympathies as well as the antipathies
+of religions. The translators of God’s Word into the vernacular of India
+two centuries and one century ago largely avoided the use of popular terms
+_because_ they were popular and the common-vehicles of Hindu thought,
+which (they said) was of the devil. We see the folly of such an avoidance
+and the need of using and rehabilitating the religious terminology of the
+people that we may the more surely come into touch with them, and the more
+easily convey to them the deepest truths of our faith. Formerly,
+missionaries declined to use the music of Hinduism because it enriched the
+temple services and “was of the devil.” Today these same sweet and
+plaintive songs are wedded to beautiful Christian hymns, prepared by
+native Christian poets, and are the appropriate and very popular vehicles
+of the best Christian thought and sentiment to Christian and non-Christian
+natives alike.
+
+This only illustrates the fact that the Christian message and work are
+finding greater power over the people because conveyed to them in more
+intelligible terms. It can come home to them in their common life as it
+did not formerly.
+
+          [Illustration: Village Christian Church, South India.]
+
+        [Illustration: High And Normal School For Girls, Madura.]
+
+(_d_) Educational work is increasingly utilized. Formerly missionary
+effort was mostly the work of the preacher—it was the direct Gospel
+message and appeal. To this has been added the no less necessary, indeed
+the deeper, work of transforming the thought of the land and of
+introducing everywhere a Christian philosophy and a process of thinking
+which will undermine the old methods and foundations of Hinduism. This
+Christian education, which is now being imparted in India to nearly half a
+million youth in our schools, is a leavening power the extent of whose
+influence no one can compute. And it carries within itself untold
+possibilities for the conversion of India. By these institutions, Sir
+William Muir truly tells us, “the country has been inoculated with
+Christian sentiment.”
+
+Sir Charles U. Atchison declares that, in his judgment, “the value of
+educational missionary institutions, in the present transition state of
+Indian opinion, can hardly be overrated. It is more than ever the duty of
+the Church to go forward in its educational policy.”
+
+In other ways also, medical and industrial, Christian work has broadened
+out so that it reaches the people at all points and lifts up the Christian
+community into a self-respecting power which will abide and grow in
+influence.
+
+In modern missions the Word of God, translated into all the vernaculars of
+the people, has become the mightiest instrument of progress in Christian
+life, and the most ubiquitous messenger of Christian truth. The Bible was
+almost a sealed book to the people of India when William Carey arrived at
+the close of the eighteenth century. The Roman Catholic and Syrian
+Christians had done nothing to bring this blessing to the people. The
+Danish mission, as we have seen, had translated it into the Tamil tongue.
+And that was all. How wonderful the work of the last century whereby this
+blessed Word has been translated into every language and many dialects of
+polyglot India. Among its 300,000,000 inhabitants there are few who cannot
+find God’s own Word translated into their own speech, published and
+brought to their doors. Can any one realize how great a leverage this is
+in the work of overturning that land religiously and in bringing Christ
+into the life of India?
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+Thus the history of Christian effort in India has not been without its
+many lessons. And these lessons have brought wisdom and, with that wisdom,
+confidence and growing efficiency to the Christian forces now at work in
+the land.
+
+For this reason the progress of the Kingdom of Christ in India will,
+during the present century, be much more marked and its triumphs more
+signal than in the past centuries. And for this well-founded assurance we
+thank God.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               Chapter VII.
+
+
+THE MISSIONARY.
+
+
+The present missionary force in India represents, according to the “Indian
+Missionary Directory,” a body of nearly 2,500 men and women who have been
+sent from Europe, America and Australia to instruct the people in the
+blessings of our faith. This body is constantly increasing in numbers and
+is sent forth and maintained by some seventy societies.(11) They are a
+noble band of Christian workers, of no less consecration and faith than
+those in the past, and of the highest training and broadest culture ever
+known.
+
+The missionary furnishes to the home churches the chief interest in
+missionary work and is the link which connects them and the home society
+with their enterprise abroad.
+
+His work at present is not what it once was in India. In earlier days the
+missionary had to be a man of all works; every form of missionary
+endeavour came under his direction. In mission work, as in every other
+line of effort, specialization has become a feature and a necessity. There
+must be men of as varied talents and special lines of training as there
+are departments of missionary work. But every missionary should be
+preëminently, _a man_. He should be a man of large calibre. There is much
+danger lest the church become indifferent to this matter, and send to the
+mission field inferior men—men who would be unable to stem the tide of
+competition and attain success at home. If a man is not qualified for
+success in the home land, there is little chance of his attaining much
+usefulness upon the mission field. And an inferior class of men sent out
+to heathen lands to represent, and to conduct the work of, the home church
+must necessarily react upon the church through want of success,
+discouragement and defeat in the missionary enterprise. A church whose
+missionary representatives abroad are wanting in fitness and power cannot
+long continue to be a strenuous missionary church; it will lack fuel to
+keep burning the fire of missionary enthusiasm.
+
+And in speaking of the missionary I include the lady missionary.
+Missionary ladies today are more numerous in India than are the men. More
+than a thousand single ladies have given themselves to the missionary life
+and are labouring with conspicuous success in that land. They meet almost
+the same conditions of life and require the same qualifications for
+success as their brother missionaries do. Of course, in certain details,
+they differ; but into such matters I cannot enter at present.
+
+I desire to enumerate the qualifications of a missionary for highest
+usefulness in India at the present time.
+
+
+
+
+1. Physical Fitness.
+
+
+Is a man physically qualified to be sent out into missionary work? For an
+enterprise like this, where a man practically enlists for life, it is of
+much concern to the Society which appoints him, and of great importance to
+the work which he is to take up that he be possessed of good health. This
+is preëminently true in the case of all those who are appointed to India.
+The climate of India is trying, though it is neither dangerous nor as
+fruitful in difficulty, as many believe. It is not necessary that a man
+who is sent out to India be possessed of robust health. Indeed, I have
+often noticed that the most robust are the most likely to yield, through
+ill-health, to climatic influences there. This is chiefly owing to the
+fact that such people are usually careless in all things pertaining to
+health. They place too much reliance upon their stock of vigour, and
+ignore, until too late, the insidious influences of the tropical sun. We
+ask not for a man of great bodily vigour; but he should be possessed of
+organic soundness. Such a man may stand the climate longer and work with
+fewer interruptions than his more vigorous brother; simply because he
+knows that his health is delicate and appreciates the necessity of taking
+suitable care of himself. On the whole, my experience has led me to two
+convictions about this matter; the first is that the less robust and more
+careful missionaries stand well that tropical climate; and in the second
+place, that to those who do take adequate care of themselves, the climate
+of India is neither dangerous nor insanitary.
+
+There are, however, certain precautions which missionaries should take in
+that land in order to insure the proper degree of efficient service.
+Annual periods of rest at hill “sanitaria” are not only desirable, but are
+necessary, in order to preserve the health and add to one’s usefulness.
+Many of the best missions in India, at present, not only arrange that
+their missionaries take this rest, but demand it of them. They have
+learned by experience that it is a reckless waste of precious power for
+their missionaries to continue working upon the hot plains until compelled
+by a break-down to seek rest and restoration. It is much easier, in the
+tropics, to preserve, than to restore, health. Many a noble service has
+been cut short, and many a useful career has been spoiled by recklessly
+continuing work for a few years without rest or change in that land. The
+youngest and the least organized missions, and consequently those which
+have not perfected arrangements for the rest and health of their members,
+are those which have the largest number of break-downs, and which lose
+most in labour and money on account of the ill health of their
+missionaries.
+
+Visits to the home land every eight or ten years are also desirable, not
+only for restoration of physical vigour, but also, for a recementing of
+domestic and social ties and for a renewed contact with and a new
+inspiration from the Church of God in the West. Life in all its aspects
+has a tendency to degenerate in the tropics; and one needs occasional
+returns to northern climes for the blessings which they alone can give.
+
+Shall the missionary indulge in recreations? Among missionaries themselves
+this is a much debated question. Some maintain that all forms of
+recreation are unworthy of a man engaged in this holy calling. I do not
+agree with them. I have seen many missionaries helped in their work by
+such recreation. There are some men and women who have no taste for such
+diversions. To them they may have little value or usefulness. But, to the
+ordinary missionary who has done a hard day’s work an hour’s diversion in
+tennis, badminton or golf has often been a godsend. It has brought relief
+to the tense nerves and a new lease of life to the organs of the body. In
+a similar way an interest in carpentry, in geology, photography, or any
+other set study, brings to the jaded mind a diversion and a new lease of
+power, and prepares one to go back to his work with fresh pleasure and
+renewed enthusiasm.
+
+One should carefully avoid entering inordinately into any such recreation.
+There is danger, and sometimes a serious danger, that such lines of
+diversion may be carried to an excess, and the mind and heart be thereby
+robbed of, rather than strengthened for, one’s life-work.
+
+
+
+
+2. His Methods of Life.
+
+
+There are questions of importance which come under this consideration and
+which are much discussed at the present time. It is asked, for instance,
+whether a man should go out as a married, or as a single, missionary. A
+few years ago the American Board showed very decided preference for the
+married missionary, and hesitated to send, except under special
+circumstances, bachelors. Missionary societies connected with ritualistic
+churches, on the other hand, have given preference, almost exclusive
+preference, to the unmarried missionary. At the present time there is a
+growing feeling, in all Protestant denominations, that there is a demand,
+and a specially appropriate field of usefulness, both for the married and
+the unmarried missionary. The supreme argument in favour of the married
+man is connected with the home influence which he establishes and which,
+in itself, is a great blessing to the heathen people among whom he lives.
+The light and beauty of a Western Christian home is always a mighty
+testimony, not only to the Gospel, but to the civilization of the West
+which is a direct product of the Gospel. Through the wife is also
+conserved the health of the husband who is thereby rendered more
+efficient. And to his activity is added her equally beneficent one among
+the women of their charge. The missionary home constitutes a testimony and
+a power which no mission can be without.
+
+On the other hand, there is a large and an attractive field of usefulness
+which can best be worked by the unmarried man and woman. There are forms
+of activity and lines of self-denial which can best be met by those who
+are not tied down by home life and who are more free to meet the rapidly
+changing necessities of certain departments of work. It is also true that
+the unmarried life represents to the Orient that type of self-denial which
+has always been associated, in their mind, with the highest degree of
+religious attainment; and it may, for this very reason, be in the line of
+highest influence upon the people of the land.
+
+So, married and unmarried life have in the mission field today their
+recognized place, advantage, and sphere of influence. And, working
+together they will exemplify to the people those forms of religious life
+and activity which bring highest glory to our cause.
+
+Another question pertains to the missionary’s daily life. Shall he conform
+to the ordinary habits of life practiced by the people among whom he
+lives? In other words, shall the missionary from the West conform to
+native customs in food and dress? It is not possible to give a categorical
+reply to this question. A country should be studied and the ideals of the
+people thoroughly investigated by the missionary before he decides upon
+any course of action in this matter. There are countries where such
+conformity would be desirable and would add considerably to the
+missionary’s influence and success. China is such a country; and many of
+the missionaries in that land find it to their interest, and to the
+interest of the work, to adopt the Chinese costume, cue and all. They thus
+cease to appear foreign and peculiar in a land where to be a foreigner is
+to be hated, or at least to be unloved and distrusted by the people.
+
+The same thing has been tried in India, not only in clothing, but also to
+a large extent in food. Many a missionary, feeling how great a barrier his
+foreign habits created between him and the people, and inspired by a
+passionate desire to come near to them in order that he might bless them,
+has divested himself of European clothing, adopted the native costume (at
+least so far as it was possible for him to do so) and has confined himself
+to native food. But I have never known of any Western missionary who has
+continued this method for a long time and declared it a success. One of
+the most pathetic instances on record is that of the famous Jesuit
+missionary Abbe Du Bois, who, after a careful study of the situation,
+donned the yellow garb of the Hindu monk and became practically a Hindu to
+the Hindus, spending most of his time in travelling from town to town and
+living strictly, both as regards food, clothing, and general habits, as an
+ordinary Hindu in order that he might gain close access to the people and
+thus win many converts to the Roman Catholic Church. For many years, in a
+distinguished missionary career, he followed this method of life. But was
+it a success? In his “Life and Letters,” written at the close of his
+missionary life, he frankly confesses that that method of approach to the
+people had proved an entire failure; that he had not thereby gained any
+added influence over them or had become better able to lead them into the
+Christian fold. He maintains that, so far as this style of living was
+concerned, he had accomplished absolutely nothing for India. I have known
+of ardent and able Protestant missionaries also who have tried the same
+method, with the same result, and have returned to their Western costume
+and food.
+
+The Salvation Army, at the beginning of its work a few years ago in India,
+compelled all its officers fully to adopt Indian methods of life. This was
+enforced, in its rigour, only for a short time; but for a sufficiently
+long period to reveal its disastrous effects upon the health and life of
+its European officers. Their system has been considerably modified, but is
+still unsatisfactory on the score of health and usefulness.
+
+It is now recognized by all that the differences between the natives of
+tropical India and the inhabitants of northern climes, and between the
+tropical clime and that of the temperate zone, are so great that we of the
+Northwest cannot, with wisdom and impunity, adopt the manners of life of
+that people. There are differences so great, both in clothing and in food,
+that it would require generations of acclimatization before the change
+could be wisely adopted in its entirety. It is indeed desirable that the
+European or American, who goes to live in the tropics, should change
+somewhat his diet so as to meet the changed requirements of his system
+there. But, to adopt the native diet is a very different thing, and will
+be conducive neither to nourishment nor digestion.
+
+There is, however, another question of more importance than this and one
+which seriously confronted the Abbe Du Bois. What is gained in
+accessibility to, and power over, the people by adopting these native
+habits? It should be remembered that Westerners have lived in India so
+long as to have become perfectly well known to all the people. Moreover,
+the Western garb and habits of life represent to the Hindu honour,
+influence, power, and culture. In his heart of hearts the Hindu highly
+respects, and is always ready to listen to, that man of the West who is
+true to himself and stands before him for what he is and for what he
+teaches. The ordinary Hindu is not stupid enough to be deceived as to a
+man’s nationality or true position in life because of his change of
+clothing or food. Indeed, to nine-tenths of all Hindus, such a change of
+habits, on the part of a European, would mean nothing else than that he
+had lost caste among his own people and had descended to a much lower
+social scale than formerly. It is well to remember in India that the way
+of access to the people is opened to the Westerner not through such outer
+changes of life, but through true manifestations of kindness and love to
+them. They are quick to understand the language of love and would never
+confound it with outer posings of men who are thereby seeking to win their
+favour.
+
+The Rev. Geo. Bowen, of Bombay, was perhaps one of the most self-denying
+of all the missionaries who lived in that land. He reduced the annual
+expenses of his living to $150.00. It was in this path of self-denial that
+he sought to find greatest usefulness as a missionary. Of this life he
+said at one time: “I have not been wholly disappointed, but I have not
+been successful enough to make me feel like advising any one else to
+follow my example. And yet I have not so completely failed as to make me
+regret the course which I have pursued. I have discovered that the gulf
+which separates the people of this country is not a social one at all; it
+is simply the great impassable gulf which separates between the religion
+of Christ and an unbelieving world.”
+
+It may be laid down as a general principle of life in that land that the
+missionary should adopt that method of life which, while consistent with
+severe economy, shall best conduce to health and efficiency of service
+among the people.
+
+And in this connection it should also be stated that there are many things
+which are perfectly natural and wise and desirable in the line of self
+help in America which should be unnecessary and unwise in such a land as
+India. It is a safe rule adopted by the best missionary workers in that
+land that a European should never do those things which can easily be done
+by natives in the matter of domestic service. It would be folly for a
+missionary man or woman to spend much time in household work and in
+similar duties when there are many people around whose special province
+that is, and who can do it for one-thirtieth his own wage, and who can
+thus release him for the more serious and higher duties of life.
+
+Thus, in all these matters, one should consider fully the whole
+situation—the character of the climate, of the people, and the conditions
+of the best health and efficiency and greatest usefulness of the
+missionary worker.
+
+The question as to the length of the missionary’s service is an important
+one. Shall he enter upon it for a definite term or shall he consider it
+his life work? In most missions and societies the missionary service is
+considered a life service. It is a service so peculiar in its training and
+in its direction; it tends in many ways so to lead a man away from the
+atmosphere of work and direction of activity found at home, that it is
+better for him, who undertakes it at all, to consecrate himself to it as
+the great mission of his life. It is also a fact that the longer he
+continues in it, the more ability and aptness he acquires for that special
+work.
+
+There are, of course, some who will find that they have mistaken their
+vocation and that missionary work does not suit them; or, rather, that
+they are not adapted to it. Such people should make no delay in returning
+home and in seeking a more congenial life work.
+
+
+
+
+3. The Intellectual Ability and Educational Training of the Missionary.
+
+
+Whatever may have been the case in the past, the day certainly has come
+when India demands only men and women of wide intelligence and thorough
+training as missionaries. Whether we regard it as a land of profound
+philosophy, and of a marvellously organized religion; or whether we
+consider the intellectual power of many of the natives of that land, the
+missionary must be amply prepared, through educational and intellectual
+equipment, to meet them. One of the saddest sights seen in India is a
+missionary who has absolutely no interest in the religious philosophy of
+the land, and who is not able to appreciate the mutual relations of that
+faith and his own and who is unequal to the task of discussing
+intelligently with, and of convincing in, matters of faith, the educated
+natives of the country. Such a man apparently did not know that he would
+meet in that land many university graduates who are still believers in,
+and defenders of, their ancestral faith. So he finds himself unable to
+stand before such men and to give reason for the faith that is in him so
+as to satisfy their earnest, intelligent inquiries, or to quiet their keen
+opposition.
+
+It should also be remembered that, in addition to this growing host of
+natives of university training and culture, there is a considerable number
+of Europeans in government service and in other departments. They come
+into constant touch with the missionary, and gauge his culture and
+capacity, and are sure to judge of the missionary work according to their
+estimate of his training and qualification.
+
+In such a land, and facing such conditions, and in the presence of such
+people, the missionary should be a man of thorough training and culture,
+and should have a mind which has ample command of the treasures of
+knowledge which it has acquired. He should also be able to find interest
+in various branches of learning. As I said above, he should, in some
+respects, be a man of special training with definite and high
+qualifications for the special department upon which he has entered; but
+he should also be not narrow, but of broad sympathies and of a growing
+interest in the general realm of culture. He should continue to cultivate
+his student tastes, and should grow constantly in ability and aptitude to
+grapple with the mighty problems of the land. He should be able not only
+to understand the many aspects of Hinduism and of Buddhism, which has
+entered so largely into the Hindu faith, but he must also know
+considerable about Mohammedanism, since it is held by one-fifth of the
+population of that land.
+
+It is well that he be thoroughly grounded in Christian doctrine before he
+enters upon his missionary duties. I have known men to enter the mission
+field who had not clear views and definite convictions concerning some of
+the most essential Christian doctrines; with the consequence that they
+drifted away from their moorings and had to recast their faith, under
+adverse circumstances, on the field.
+
+The mission field is no place for a man to readjust his faith and to
+discover that his religious affiliations are not what they ought to be.
+
+It is not a question whether a man’s theology is of the conservative, or
+of the progressive, type. Both types may be needed. It is largely a
+question whether he has grasped clearly and with conviction _any_
+doctrine—whether he has thought for himself and appropriated _any_ system
+of truth. Or, I should say, whether any sort of theology has gripped him
+in its power. Bishop Thoburn has well said that “the young missionary
+should have a clear and well-grounded theology before going abroad. His
+views of vital theological truth should be clear and settled. The
+Christian Church of America cannot afford to export doubts or even
+religious speculation to foreign fields. The people of India, and I may
+add of other lands, are abundantly able to provide all the doubts and all
+the unprofitable speculation that any church will care to contend with;
+and one important qualification of the missionary should be a positive
+faith as opposed to doubt, and a clear system of living truth as opposed
+to profitless speculation.” Above all, the missionary should have a
+working faith in the gospel—not a half-grounded conviction. There may be a
+place _at home_ for the unsettled mind; the mission field is not for such.
+In India, especially, while there is ample room and abundant opportunity
+and inducement for progress in thought and development in doctrinal
+construction, there is no place for destructive doubts and mental
+unsettlement. Positive teaching and not interrogations and destructive
+doubts should characterize the missionary. Give us a man who _knows_
+something and is inspired with convictions. For, it should be remembered,
+the missionary is preëminently an instructor. He must give himself to the
+work of establishing others in living, satisfying, saving truth. He is to
+instruct the people, as a preacher, in the way of salvation. He is also
+called upon to furnish a working equipment of truth to pastors, preachers
+and teachers. He should be conversant with the Bible and with the various
+theories of interpretation. He should be possessed of a clear system of
+theology and should understand the best methods and principles of
+Christian work.
+
+For the attaining of all this, the missionary must continue as an earnest
+student, he must maintain upon the field thorough habits of study. His
+missionary life, itself, should be to him, not only an interpreter of what
+he formerly studied, but an incitement to further regular study. Many
+temptations overtake the missionary to intellectual indolence as well as
+to intellectual dissipation. He is in danger, under the pressure of other
+interesting work and distractions, either not to read anything very
+seriously or to read in a haphazard, desultory way. The latter is
+specially a dangerous habit on the mission field. The missionary needs not
+only to cultivate habits of study and to devote certain hours daily, so
+far as possible, to that habit; he should, preëminently, keep before him
+some definite aim or ideal towards which all his reading should be
+directed. If he be specially a preacher, he should conscientiously and
+thoroughly prepare his sermons as if he were to preach to the most
+cultured audiences; or, if he instruct his agents, he should make
+previous, elaborate preparation for the same.
+
+He should take an intelligent interest in, and make a thorough study of,
+the people, their social and religious customs, their economic conditions,
+their educational efforts, their history,—these and many other studies
+will furnish abundant and abounding interest to the thoughtful missionary
+and will add to his power in his work. In all these respects, no people on
+earth are more interesting than those of India. And for successful
+spiritual work among them the missionary needs to study these side issues
+more than he would, perhaps, among any other people.
+
+He will find it of much help if he is apt at acquiring language. A good
+and usable knowledge of the vernacular of the people is a most important
+avenue of access to their mind and heart. The acquiring of a living
+language is a very different thing from the study of a dead language. A
+man may be a success in the one and a failure in the other. A good ear is
+of paramount importance in a first-class facility for acquiring and using
+a modern vernacular.
+
+I would not say that a man who has not a good command of the vernacular of
+a people cannot be to them a good missionary; for a few of the best
+missionaries I know, speak the vernacular wretchedly. But I _do_ emphasize
+the fact that proficiency here is of prime importance and I would also add
+that it should be the first work of a missionary after entering his field.
+To dawdle with the language the first year, is, generally speaking, to
+fail in acquiring it at all.
+
+Should a young man, who intends to become a missionary, receive a special
+preparatory training for missionary work? Yes, to a certain extent. I
+heartily approve of all recent courses established in theological
+institutions with a view to training their students in missionary
+principles and literature. And I would that these courses were much
+enlarged so as to correspond with the relative importance of the
+missionary work. Beyond all this, I believe that every student, who
+intends to become a missionary, should spend time during his last year or
+two as a student in special preparation for his work and field. For
+instance, it were a great help to him who is to become a missionary in
+India that he study seriously the Sanskrit language and Hindu philosophy.
+These two would give him an important start upon his missionary career
+and, probably, furnish him with initial taste for that larger equipment
+which is essential to the great missionary. It is of course understood
+that the modern science of Comparative Religion has already had his
+attention in the general course of study. Too much emphasis cannot be
+placed upon the study of this science as an aid to the modern missionary.
+
+I would also urge here the importance of each missionary, so far as his
+tastes and ability permit, preparing himself for the work of enriching the
+Christian literature of the field and country of his choice. In India this
+is becoming a matter, not only of growing, but also of paramount,
+importance. In the past, missionaries have been too much engrossed with
+the other departments of work to give themselves to the production of
+tracts and books. Much more must be done in this line in the future. Every
+year adds to the need for, and the influence of, a worthy literary effort
+expressed in the various vernaculars of India. The growing host of readers
+in the Christian communities and among the non-Christians is a loud cry
+for missionary consecration to this specific work.
+
+There is not one possession or element of power connected with a thorough
+education and high culture which will not become available and most useful
+in that interesting land, and which will not be transmuted into power for
+the elevation and redemption of that people.
+
+
+
+
+4. Spiritual Qualifications.
+
+
+It would hardly seem necessary to speak on this subject. It must be
+everywhere understood that a life of spiritual power is, and must ever
+remain, the first requisite of the missionary. And yet, I fear that the
+missionary force of today reveals more serious delinquency at this point
+than at any other. If missionaries were asked, wherein lies the chief
+hindrance to their work, I believe they would, all but unanimously, refer
+to their want of spiritual power. Not that they are more defective in this
+respect than are the ministers at home. They are a noble band of
+consecrated men and women. But they greatly need, and bemoan their need
+of, a growing spiritual endowment, the possession of which would give to
+them a new joy, and, to the people, an inexhaustible gift of life, and to
+the missionary work a power hitherto unknown.
+
+A man should not go out as a foreign missionary unless he has a definite
+call from God to go. It must be laid so strongly upon his heart that he
+feels the necessity of going forth unto the heathen. There must be a
+constraining power and a felt conviction within, that in the mission field
+alone can he find rest and peace and power.
+
+The missionary should be a man of pronounced and positive spirituality—a
+man who loves the Word of God, who finds meditation in it sweet, and who
+finds relief, strength and joy in frequent daily prayer. The depressing
+influences which beset his spiritual life are many. The all-pervasive,
+chilling influence of heathenism, and its dead and deadening ceremonialism
+tend to exercise an increasing power over him. He will not, at first,
+realize this influence; but as an insidious and an ever swelling tide of
+evil it will come into his soul, unless he is well guarded and daily
+fortified against it by frequent communion with God. In India the
+hardening influence of the all-surrounding heathenism is as subtle as it
+is potent in its influence upon the life of any Christian worker and needs
+to be overcome by constant spiritual culture.
+
+The life of the European Christians who reside in that country is so far
+from being Christlike and is so wanting in these spiritual traits which
+should characterize an earnest Christian, that the missionary constantly
+has to guard himself against its influence upon himself.
+
+The loneliness of the missionary—his frequent and long-continued absence
+from those means of grace which so largely minister to the spiritual
+strength of a pastor in this country—is something deeply felt. Few men
+realize the extent of the spiritual helps which the Christian society of
+America renders to the aspiring life of a man of God. In his loneliness,
+in the far-off land, the missionary feels its absence keenly.
+
+Moreover, all the native Christians of the community of which he is the
+official head look up to him for inspiration. Is he wanting in faith,
+hopefulness and cheer; is he depressed and discouraged; is he lacking in
+the power of prayer and of sweet communion with God? It is marvellous how
+quickly this frame of mind is transmitted from him to the people of his
+charge. The pastors, catechists and other mission agents of his field all
+look to him for their ideal and seek to draw from him their inspiration in
+spiritual life. Is he down; then they are down with him. In coldness as in
+spiritual ardour they faithfully reflect his life and temper. It is,
+indeed, true that many of these live spiritual lives which bring
+inspiration and spiritual joy to him. The simplicity and earnestness of
+the faith of most of the native Christians is beautiful. Still, in many
+respects, he finds the community a heavy spiritual drain upon him; and, if
+he is to maintain himself as a worthy leader in the higher Christian life,
+he must live constantly with God and find daily strength in Him.
+
+In India, specially, there are needed a few definite spiritual gifts which
+I desire to emphasize and which a missionary should aim to cultivate.
+
+The first in order, if not in importance, is patience. To us of the West
+the Orient seems preëminently slow. To them of the East we of the West
+rush everything unduly and are the victims of impatience. There is much
+truth in that homely skit of Kipling’s:
+
+“It is bad for the Christian’s peace of mind
+  To hustle the Aryan brown;
+For the Christian riles but the Aryan smiles,
+  And it weareth the Christian down.
+
+“And the end of the fight is a tombstone white,
+  With the name of the late deceased;
+And the epitaph drear, a fool lies here
+  Who tried to hustle the East.”
+
+The ordinary Hindu will endure the white man’s impatience, and he and the
+native Christian will submit to the same weakness on the part of the
+missionary. But they fail to understand it; and the missionary’s power
+with them is very largely impaired by the manifestation of this evil
+spirit. Even if impatience were ever, anywhere, a virtue, in India it is
+always an unmixed evil and should be guarded against. The warning is the
+more needed because the tropical climate itself is a very bad irritant to
+the nervous system. Among the Hindus patience is regarded the supreme
+virtue of God and of man; and it should adorn every missionary who seeks
+to be their leader.
+
+Humility also is a grace which needs much cultivation by the missionary.
+He has constant temptation to pride. The sin of masterfulness is naturally
+his besetting sin; for his influence over his people and his control in
+the direction of his work gradually grow sweet to him and develop, if he
+is not very careful, into an imperiousness of will which is neither
+pleasant to those who come in contact with him, nor consistent with the
+golden grace of humility, nor in any sense pleasing to God.
+
+Love—that essence of divine character—needs preëminent guarding,
+encouragement and development on the part of the missionary. There is so
+much that is unlovely and unlovable all about him, so little to attract
+and draw out his tender emotions that he needs to drink freely from the
+fountain of love above; or he will degenerate very easily into a hard,
+cold, unsympathetic, cynical missionary—a frame of mind which will utterly
+disqualify him for any joy or power in his work. One of the best
+missionaries I have known used to pray very frequently—“O Lord, save me
+from the sin of despising this people.” It is a prayer which every
+missionary may find it necessary to offer frequently. True Christian love
+is none the less necessary, yea the more necessary on the mission field,
+because the missionary lives among people who are not kindred in blood to
+himself.
+
+Then he needs also a large gift of faith and of hope. The smallness of the
+Christian Church in the midst of a dense mass of heathenism; the apparent
+inadequacy of earthly means to convert that great people to Christ; the
+slowness of progress and the fewness of results—all these tend to depress
+and discourage the worker. And he needs to offer for himself, as for his
+people, the prayer which Elisha offered in behalf of the young man,—“O
+Lord, I pray thee open his eyes that he may see. And the Lord opened the
+eyes of the young man and he saw and behold the mountain was full of
+chariots of fire round about Elisha.”
+
+Spiritual power, in all its forms, is not only greatly needed by the
+missionary, it is also highly appreciated by the people who are always
+ready to be led by it. I believe that the people in the East are much more
+amenable to this influence and much more ready to follow spiritual
+guidance than are the people of our own land. And this, in itself, is an
+added reason for deep spirituality in the missionary.
+
+
+
+
+5. The Missionary’s Attitude Towards the Non-Christian World.
+
+
+This attitude is one of considerable importance to the missionary because
+it furnishes largely the motive of his life work. Before one goes out as a
+missionary he should acquire some definite and sound views as to the
+condition of the non-Christians who constitute three-fourths of our race.
+This means that he must decide as to his missionary motive,—what motive
+power shall impel him to leave his native land and go to live among a
+benighted people surrounded by a thousand disadvantages.
+
+Since the organization of our missionary societies—less than a century
+ago—there has been an important change of emphasis in the matter of
+missionary motives. The progress, I might almost say revolution, in
+theology has worked towards this change. The recent discovery of new
+sciences, and the utilization of the wonderful modern means of
+communication whereby a new knowledge of non-Christian peoples has been
+made possible to us, has affected our consideration of the whole problem
+of missionary work and has especially modified the missionary motive. Dr.
+W. N. Clark, in his admirable book on Christian Missions, discusses fully
+this question. “The difference,” he says, “between our conception of man
+today and that of a century ago is mainly not that something true has
+fallen out of it, though that may be the fact with many minds: it is
+rather that immeasurably much that is true has been added to it.
+Unquestionably our conception of man is still incomplete, unbalanced and
+incorrect, but it certainly has been altered within the century by the
+addition of much that must remain in any true conception. Our knowledge
+must have experienced true and legitimate growth and from our present
+conception of the human world we can never go back to that which our
+fathers held when they began the work of modern missions ... our thought
+concerning our fellow-men contains elements of truth and justice that our
+fathers knew nothing of. The best Christian feeling towards the heathen
+world today is far more true, righteous, sympathetic, Christlike, than the
+feelings of those who were interested in missions an hundred years ago.
+But the single motive which, standing alone, led to the missionary
+enterprise has come to be so surrounded by other thoughts and motives as
+to lose its relative importance, and be less available than it then was as
+a controlling influence. This is one of the great and significant causes
+of the crisis in missions.”
+
+It is not necessarily true that the paramount motive of a century ago is
+no longer believed; but that other motives have grown and reached a
+commanding influence as a power in the Christian consciousness of today. A
+Christian missionary has indeed changed his views, for instance,
+concerning the origin and character of Hinduism. Through modern
+enlightenment and the study of comparative religion no man can go out as a
+missionary, even as I was expected to go less than a quarter of a century
+ago, with a general belief that that great religion is entirely of the
+devil and is in itself evil and only evil continually. The missionary of
+today must discriminate, must study appreciation and consider historic
+facts. He must know that ethnic, and all non-Christian religions, have had
+their uses, and that some still have their uses in the world. They are the
+expression of the deepest religious instincts of the human soul. And they
+have, especially such a faith as Hinduism, not a few elements of truth
+which a missionary should know no less than he should understand the great
+evils which enter as a part of them.
+
+The greatest missionary motive of today lies in the last commission of our
+Lord which emanates from the heart, and reveals the essence of our
+religion. His command to his disciples to go and disciple the nations
+stands now as the Supreme Christian Command; and its significance is
+appreciated and emphasized today as never before. And so long as a Church
+gives increasing emphasis to this, His greatest commission, it must
+necessarily be in the path of duty, of privilege, of blessing and of
+power. Above all other missionary motives this must remain supreme.
+
+And there must go hand in hand with this loyalty to Christ, a deepening
+loyalty to Christianity and a growing appreciation of its uniqueness in
+the world. Christianity is not one religion among many; it stands alone as
+the soul-satisfying and soul-saving faith. The scattered lights of other
+faiths find here their centre, and all their prophesies find here
+fulfillment. The need of Christianity, by all men, is supreme. Whatever
+may be said in favour of other faiths we must say of them that they are,
+in many respects, perverted and are inadequate as a means of salvation.
+
+And in addition to this the missionary must feel that all non-Christian
+peoples are in supreme need of Christ, the Saviour. This fact we cannot
+afford to qualify, without, in very truth, cutting the nerve of missions.
+When a missionary regards Christ and His mission and message as only an
+incident in the life and need of our race and ceases to acknowledge that
+all men need Christ supremely, he had better give up his work; for his
+missionary motive has lost its foundation and his life work has been
+robbed of its power.
+
+The missionary is called to go wherever the Macedonian cry of human need
+and of spiritual helplessness is heard. Our Lord’s command was
+world-embracing in its extent; it was a discipling of _all_ nations; it
+was a call to be witnesses unto the uttermost parts of the earth.
+
+Shall the missionary go and preach everywhere the gospel of Christ,
+whether men invite him or not? In view of recent events in China and in
+other lands some people (and among them are a few well-meaning Christians)
+question our duty and even our right and privilege to carry the gospel to
+a people against its will and when it is satisfied with its own faith.
+They claim that this restraint is demanded by true Christian altruism and
+by the spirit of Christ. That the day has come when the Christian Church
+should thoroughly reconsider the best methods of missionary approach to
+such peoples I readily agree. I also maintain that Protestant missions
+should everywhere scrupulously avoid all Jesuitical methods and political
+influences and should always strive to minimize, if not ignore, their
+political rights and magnify the spiritual side of their work. Under these
+conditions no people has lent an unwilling ear to the missionary’s
+message, or, for a long time, failed to rejoice in his presence and work.
+But had missionary societies sent their missionaries only to those people
+who invited them, or were prepared to give them a cordial welcome, where
+could they have found work or how achieve the magnificent success of the
+last century? Imagine the great missionary apostle sending messengers in
+advance to inquire whether the inhabitants of Lystra and Ephesus, of
+Thessalonica and Athens were willing to receive him, and turning away his
+face because, forsooth, they were not prepared to welcome him! The only
+invitation he did receive was from Macedonia in a vision. The acceptance
+of the invitation brought to him at once opposition and stripes. Paul said
+that he _knew_ that bonds awaited him wherever he went. But that did not
+deter him.
+
+Had our Lord Himself considered the attitude of man towards Himself He
+would never have come down to men. He came to fling fire upon the earth—to
+bring not peace but a sword. He was despised and rejected of men. Like
+Him, missionaries must consider the deep spiritual _need_ and not the
+_desire_ of a people. Above all, they must be assured everywhere, in their
+great life work, that they are sent by God rather than invited by men.
+
+
+
+
+6. The Relationship Which the Missionary Sustains to the Missionary
+Society and the Churches Which Support Him.
+
+
+The relationship into which a man, who becomes a missionary, enters with
+the missionary society and the churches is a very precious one, and should
+be fully realized. In a peculiar sense he has become their adopted
+child—the subject of their prayer and the object of their pride. They have
+taken him into their own heart and his support and success are their
+peculiar concern.
+
+He is the connecting link between them and the work which they support and
+cherish in the far-off land. Whatever of interest, of joy and of
+responsibility they possess in that work passes through him. He is to them
+the channel through which flow their endeavours. He is the living
+embodiment of their interest in the work as also of their effort to bring
+the heathen to Christ. And in like manner he has become to them the
+articulate cry of the heathen world for help. He represents to them at the
+same time both the progress of the work, its need and the claims of a
+heathen world upon them. He is their agent to develop and inspire their
+infant Mission Church. He is also the almoner of their benevolence.
+
+In all these capacities it is well that he remember, constantly, how much
+he depends for inspiration as for support upon those who have sent him
+forth to the heathen and who, under God, sustain him and his work. He
+should cultivate full appreciation of their endeavour; he should keep
+himself in living, loving touch with both society and churches; and he
+should deem it his duty and privilege to furnish them with all light and
+intelligence concerning his work. It is thus that he must strengthen their
+faith and inspire their hearts in the great and far-off work which they
+are maintaining. It is his opportunity to add fuel to the ardor and
+enthusiasm of all the churches in the missionary endeavour. In this he has
+an important function to perform and should endeavour to magnify his
+office.
+
+In my opinion the relationship between the missionary and those whom he
+represents at home might easily be strengthened and improved by added
+recognition and courtesy to him in the home-land. At present the foreign
+missionary of the congregational churches is simply regarded as their paid
+agent. This relationship is indeed a pleasant and a cordial one. The
+American Board is most appreciative of the labors of its missionary agents
+and deals with them generously. The churches also give them a cordial
+welcome and a warm hearing. But the missionary has no status whatever
+beyond this. He returns for a furlough to the home-land and feels himself,
+in a peculiar sense, a stranger. He has no official connection whatever
+with his society; his voice is not heard in its councils; his wisdom and
+experience are not sought in its deliberations. In other words, though
+possessed of a large stock of knowledge which might be of value to the
+Board in the shaping of its policy and in the direction of its work at its
+annual meetings, he has absolutely no voice or place there and stands
+apart from its organization, beyond the privilege of being its foreign
+servant. The missionary body has felt this deprivation and isolation
+during critical periods in the history of the Board; and it still feels
+that, at least some of its number should be permitted both to enjoy the
+honour, and also to render the service incident to being corporate members
+of the Board.
+
+The situation is no better in his relation to the home churches. He is a
+member, probably, of some church in the home-land; but, upon his return
+home he has no status whatever in any Conference or Association, or as a
+member of a Ministerial body among his home brethren. In his deputation
+work at home he finds welcome, as a stranger or as an outsider, and not as
+a member or as an integral part of any body or Association.
+
+The position of the missionary is different among the Methodists. Every
+minister of that body finds that, by becoming a foreign missionary he does
+not separate himself from home ties and privileges. His ministerial
+connection is preserved intact, so that he has a status in the churches
+and in the missionary society.
+
+
+
+
+7. The Missionary and the Mission To Which He Belongs.
+
+
+When a man becomes a member of a foreign mission he soon realizes that he
+has become a part of a compact organization. All its members are bound
+together by the warmest ties of friendship and love. Largely separated
+from the world and knit together by common purpose as by all their highest
+ambitions, they verily become a big family whose love increases as the
+years multiply, and among whom the spirit of dissension can only create
+the deepest sorrow and greatest bitterness. It is, therefore, of the
+utmost importance that every one who becomes a missionary should be a man
+of peace; should know how to live in harmony with all his brethren. He
+should cultivate that spirit and should aim to see eye to eye with those
+who are thus so intimately connected with him. In loving sympathy they
+should unite in the serious concerns of their life-work. One of the first
+requisites demanded from a missionary applicant from the American Board is
+that he be of a peaceable disposition—able to live harmoniously with
+others. And it is not only a suggestion that should be heeded by every
+missionary; it is also a rule which should be enforced by every missionary
+society.
+
+Each mission has behind it a history, and, before it, more or less of an
+aim and policy. It should be the ambition of every member of that mission
+to study and honour the one, and to be faithful and loyal to the other.
+The history of most missions in India is precious and full of instruction.
+They have sainted heroes and most interesting traditions. The missionary
+should not only study the records of his own mission and draw from them
+every possible lesson for his life; he should also enter heartily into the
+spirit of the mission and endeavour cordially to bring himself _en
+rapport_ with its highest wisdom, deepest purposes and most cherished
+schemes for the future. It is not necessary that he be satisfied with all
+that the mission has done; he should also aim, in the spirit of humility
+and of patience, to constitutionally influence his brethren to his own new
+views and better way of thinking, if he have any. Above all, he should aim
+to conserve rather than to destroy. The blessings of the past should be
+utilized in attaining higher things for the future. Revolutionary methods
+are ill-adapted to add blessing to such a work. It should also be the aim
+of the missionary to so further the work of his mission that it may soon
+cease to be a necessity. A mission, at best, is but a temporary thing. It
+should constantly aim to so nourish and strengthen the native church as to
+make itself unnecessary. And it should be the aim of the missionary to
+hasten, with all speed, this consummation.
+
+
+
+
+8. The Relation of the Missionary to the People Among Whom He Lives.
+
+
+Having entered upon his work and settled among the people of his choice,
+he must seek to realize the best possible relation to them. This
+relationship will be a varied one.
+
+He must be a leader of the Christian community. In India, today, there is
+special need for missionaries who are born leaders. The people of that
+land are defective in the power of initiative; but they are most tractable
+and docile. They love to follow a bold and a wise leader of men. And the
+missionary, from the very necessity of his position, should be able to
+direct and guide the Christian community into ways of holiness and of
+Christian activity. He is to be a leader of leaders. He should marshal the
+mission agents connected with him in such a way as to lead the native
+Church into highest usefulness and most earnest endeavour for the
+salvation of souls.
+
+He should be strong as an organizer and administrator. In missions the
+word organization is becoming the keyword of the situation. There is no
+danger of over-organization, so long as the organization is endowed with
+life and does not degenerate into machinery. The best organized activities
+of today are the most powerful and the most useful. And the missionary
+will find his highest powers for organization taxed to the utmost in his
+missionary work. And as an administrator there will be made many claims
+upon him daily. I know of few qualifications that are more essential to
+the highest success on the mission field than conspicuous ability to
+organize and wisdom to administer the affairs of a mission. Missionaries
+frequently fail at this point and need therefore to strengthen themselves
+in this particular.
+
+A missionary should be as much the conserver of the good as a destroyer of
+the evil which he finds among the people. Much of that which he will see
+in India, for instance, will at first, and perhaps for a long time, seem
+strange and outlandish to him; but let him not decide that it is therefore
+evil. The life of the Orient is built on different lines from that of the
+Occident. Many things in common life, in domestic economy and in social
+customs will, and must, be different there from what they are here. Their
+civilization, though different from ours, has a consistency as a whole;
+and we cannot easily eliminate certain parts and substitute for them those
+of our own civilization without dislocating the whole. Therefore, it is
+often safer and better to conserve what seems to us the lesser good of
+their civilization than to introduce what seems the greater good of our
+own.
+
+The missionary must be careful to distinguish between those things which
+are real, and those which are apparent, evils among the customs of the
+people. There are some customs, such as are connected with the degradation
+of woman and heathen ceremonies which are fundamentally wrong and must be
+opposed always. There are others which seem uncouth and unworthy, but
+which are devoid of moral or religious significance. Of two missionaries,
+the one who studies to utilize the existing good among the habits of the
+people will find greatest usefulness. Some waste their time, destroy their
+influence and minimize their usefulness by a destructive way of attacking
+everything that is not positively good and beating their head against
+every wall of custom.
+
+The missionary should be a prophet to rebuke and to condemn evil. He will
+find numberless evils on all sides of him—in Church, in general society
+and in individual life among the people. He must not hesitate to use
+constantly his voice as a protest against all forms of evil. This duty is
+the more incumbent upon him as there are none among the people to protest
+and to denounce the most flagrant, demoralizing and universal evils of the
+land. One of the most discouraging things concerning the situation in
+India is, not the universality of certain evils, but the utter absence of
+those who dare to withstand them and denounce them as sins before all the
+people. Missionaries have done more in that land to rightly characterize
+certain gross evils and to call the attention of the people to them than
+have any other people in the land. And they have recognition for this. And
+this prophetic function of the missionary must be exercised with
+increasing faithfulness for the good of the land and for the purity of the
+Church of God.
+
+In that country the missionary must also stand before the people as their
+exemplar. He must represent, not only Christianity at its best, but also
+the civilization of the West in its purest and most attractive garb. India
+has always greatly needed such human types of nobility of character to
+encourage and stimulate the people to a higher life. With all modesty and
+due humility the missionary is called upon just as much to live as he is
+to teach the best that is found in his religion and in the civilization of
+his mother country. In India, the life of the missionary has spoken more
+loudly than his words. There are millions in that land today, who, while
+they deny and reject the teaching of the missionary, give him unstinted
+praise both for what he is and for what he has done for the country.
+
+The testimony of Sir William Mackworth Young, Lieutenant-Governor of
+Punjab is only one of many such;—“I take off my hat to the humblest
+missionary that walks a bazaar in India,” he said, in a recent public
+address, “because he is leading a higher and a grander life and doing a
+grander work than any other class of persons who are working in India. If
+the natives of India have any practical knowledge of what is meant by
+Christian charity, if they know anything of high, disinterested motives
+and self-sacrifice, it is mainly from the missionary that they learn it.
+The strength of our position in India depends more largely upon the
+good-will of the people than upon the strength and number of our
+garrisons, and for that good-will we are largely indebted to the kindly,
+self-sacrificing efforts of the Christian missionary. It is love which
+must pave the way for the regeneration of India as well as for the
+consolidation of England’s power.”
+
+The missionary must never lose this crown of glory in India. He must hold
+it most precious and strive to add to the glory which he thus reflects
+upon his Faith in that land.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter VIII.
+
+
+MISSIONARY ORGANIZATION.
+
+
+Thorough organization of any work is essential to its highest efficiency.
+The Missionary Department of the work of the Christian Church should,
+therefore, be well organized. As missionary effort expands, grows in
+intensity and increases in power, it must find a growingly efficient
+organization in order to adequately express itself and to attain further
+growth.
+
+1. A thorough Missionary Organization at home is the first requisite in
+order to highest success. Thus only can the missionary work abroad be
+maintained and fostered; because, by this means only can missionary ardour
+be kindled in the churches. A Church which is not adequately marshalled
+for activity in heathen lands will soon become self-centred and will
+easily forget the claims, if not the very existence, of the heathen.
+
+A Foreign Missionary Society of well organized efficiency has, up to the
+present, been the best agency in the development and furtherance of the
+foreign work of every denomination. And the day does not seem near when
+this agency can be dispensed with.
+
+This missionary society should be in close touch with the denomination or
+body of Christians which has organized and maintains it. It should be
+plastic to the touch and will of its constituency and should seek in every
+way to be at the same time a faithful exponent of the thought and ambition
+of the churches, and a leader and a source of new inspiration and light to
+them on missionary problems. This society should scrupulously avoid, on
+the one hand, the danger of too much independence and of a purpose to
+shape the missionary policy of the churches; and, on the other, the
+equally serious evil of dragging, or of declining to move a step without
+the direct intimation, command or leadership of the churches. There has
+been a time in the history of the American Board when the one evil
+constituted its danger; at the present time it would seem as if the other
+danger seriously threatened it.
+
+It is of much importance that the foreign missionary benevolences of a
+church should be wisely administered _as a whole_. When different
+missionary societies of a denomination appeal, as they do at present, to
+our churches for funds to support the missionary cause in foreign lands,
+it is of great importance that moneys received by these different bodies
+should be appropriated wisely. They should be brought together both for
+unity of results and for economy of expenditure on the mission field. My
+observation convinces me that, for want of a wise union or correlation of
+our missionary agencies at home the various departments of the work (of
+the Congregationalists, for instance) on the mission field are very
+unequally supported, and an unwise distribution of the benevolences of the
+churches follows as a result. A previous, full consideration, by a
+competent general committee of finance, in America, should be had of the
+needs of the various departments of each mission and of the distribution
+of all the funds collected for that mission by the various societies; and
+they should be carefully distributed in accordance with the urgency of
+those needs respectively.
+
+These missionary societies should aim to cultivate in the churches the
+spirit of missions as a _Christian principle_. Advocates of the missionary
+cause strongly feel that the interest of the Church in missionary work
+today is too little based upon the real and fundamental principle of
+missionary work as a necessity of the life of the Church itself, and too
+much dependent upon exciting narrative, tearful appeal and poetic romance.
+The cultivation of the missionary principle and the inculcation of the
+doctrine of the privilege and beauty of supporting missions, apart from
+any impassioned appeals or tragic events, is one of the _desiderata_ of
+the Church today. It is a morbid condition of the mind of the Church which
+demands exciting narrative and hysterical appeal in order to arouse it to
+its duty in this matter; and it also tends to create a standard of
+missionary advocacy which is neither manly nor sufficiently careful to
+balance well the facts and data of missionary work as it is found upon the
+field. There is considerable danger of accepting, today, only that form of
+missionary appeal which is directed to the emotion and which abounds in
+mental excitement rather than that which furnishes food for sober thought.
+The consequence is that this advocacy is in danger of becoming a producer
+of more heat than light—of more emotion than intelligent conviction.
+
+The recent movement towards leading certain churches to take up definite
+portions of the work in foreign lands and to support, each a missionary
+for itself, has in it much to commend it to our acceptance. It certainly
+has the merit of definiteness in purpose, work and prayer; and this brings
+added interest and a growing sense of responsibility to each church which
+takes up the work. If a man (or a church) finds his interest in missions
+waning as a principle of Christian activity the best thing for him,
+perhaps, is to come into touch with a missionary or a mission agent on the
+field. By supporting him or a department of work conducted by him, and by
+being kept frequently informed of the work which he is supporting, new
+fuel is constantly added to that missionary interest which thereby
+develops into zeal and enthusiasm. The method has apostolic sanction and
+partakes of the simplicity of primitive missionary endeavour.
+
+But this method should not be too exclusively pursued. It should not
+interfere with a broader outlook upon missions and a general sympathy
+with, and support of, the _common_ work. And all of the work should be
+done through the missionary society which alone can rightly coördinate and
+unify the whole work of the particular mission.
+
+Faith Missions, so called, represent a genuine and a worthy spirit among
+many of God’s people today. To them the somewhat lumbering business
+methods of the large missionary organizations savour too much of worldly
+prudence and seem subversive of the deepest Christian faith. They maintain
+that the old method is one that looks too much to men and too little to
+God for support. And they also claim that the missionary of such a society
+has little opportunity for the exercise of highest faith in God both for
+himself and his work. These new missions, therefore, have come into
+existence practically, if not really, as a protest against modern methods
+of conducting missionary work. They may do much good if they exercise some
+restraint upon missionary societies in this matter. Probably it is needed.
+Many believe that there is an excessive tendency among the directors of
+missionary societies, at the present day, to consider this great
+enterprise simply as a _business_ enterprise, and that, in the committee
+rooms, faith has yielded too much to prudence, and the wings of missionary
+enterprise have been too much clipped by worldly considerations. How far
+their reasoning is true, I will not decide. Their claim is not without a
+basis of truth. The financial embarrassment brings to the Missionary
+Society today, much more than it used to, discouragement and a halt; with
+the result that the missions are more than ever before crippled by
+retrenchment and home churches are resting satisfied with smaller
+attainments and are forgetting the old watchwords of progress and advance.
+
+“Faith Missions” are created by and meet the needs of a certain class of
+people in the church whose spiritual life is intense and who crave romance
+in faith and in life. The missionaries of these societies tire of the
+great organizations of the church and are usually men who are restless
+under any stiff method or extensive system in Christian work.
+
+But very few such missionaries meet with permanent success. The glamour of
+the “faith life,” so called, does not abide with them. Few men have the
+staying, as well as the supporting, faith of a George Müller; and yet
+every missionary in this class should be a hero of faith—a man with that
+special gift and power from God which will maintain itself and go on
+working under the most adverse circumstances. And this is what the
+ordinary “faith missionary” does not possess in an exceptional degree.
+
+As a matter of fact, “Faith Missions” are decidedly wasteful of means in
+the conduct of their work. If, in some ways, they practice more economy,
+in other matters of greatest importance, there is deplorable wastefulness.
+For, they are wanting both in continuity and in wise management and sane
+direction. As history has shown, they also easily degenerate into very
+prudential methods and sensational forms of advertisement which destroy
+the very faith which the missions were supposed to express and conserve.
+There is no less faith—rather is there more—exercised by members of
+well-organized missions who depend upon God’s supply through the regular
+channel of a society. For they can give themselves entirely to their work
+of faith and love, confident that God will provide for their wants and the
+wants of their work; while the “faith missionary” has to devote much time
+in anxious thought and in skillful and dubious methods of appeal to secure
+the means of support.
+
+One only needs to look at India today and there study the results of these
+two classes of missions in order to see which method is the more
+economical and the more owned of God.
+
+The Missionary Boards should keep in close touch and living communication
+with the missions which they support. The mission to which I have the
+honour of belonging has not had the privilege, until the last year, of
+receiving an official visitation from any member of our Board for nearly
+forty-five years. That a society should aim, by its officials in one city,
+to conduct, for so many years, a mission among its antipodes without
+having one representative among its directors who has gazed upon that
+land, seen that people or studied on the ground any of its problems, seems
+remarkable, and wants in that sagacity which usually directs us as a
+people. By frequent visitations alone can such a society expect to be able
+to direct wisely and lead successfully its missions. For, it is highly
+desirable, both in the interests of the mission itself, of the society and
+of the home churches that at least some of the directors of the society
+should know personally and well each mission supported through them. At no
+greater intervals than five years such a visitation should be planned for
+every mission. I am confident that they would add largely to the
+efficiency of our missionary work and increase the interest of home
+churches in their foreign work. But such visiting committees should be
+willing to learn and should not come out with preconceived ideas of what
+ought to be done, nor with bottled and labelled remedies for all the ills
+of the mission. Some missions are sore today because of a visitation many
+years ago, since it was not conceived in the spirit of highest wisdom and
+teachableness.
+
+2. The missions themselves also should be well organized for work. The
+success of a mission will depend, in no small degree, upon the character
+of its organization. In India, today, there is a great variety of
+missionary organizations. They range from the almost purely autocratic
+ones, established by Christians of the European Continent, to the
+thoroughly democratic and largely autonomous ones of the American
+Missions. German and Danish Missions are mostly controlled by the home
+committees of their missionary societies. American Missions have a large
+degree of autonomy in the conduct of their affairs. British Missions
+divide equally with their home Society the right and privilege of
+conducting their affairs. It is certainly not wise that a committee of
+gentlemen thousands of miles distant from the mission field should
+autocratically direct and control, even to matters of detail, the affairs
+of their mission. The missionaries on the ground should not only have the
+right to express their opinions, but should also have a voice in
+conducting the affairs of the mission for whose furtherance they have
+given their life, whose interests they dearly love and whose affairs they
+are the most competent to understand.
+
+Nor yet should a mission be entirely free from foreign guidance and
+suggestion. Too much power given to a mission is as really a danger as too
+little power. It is well for a mission that it should have the aid of men
+who have large missionary interests under their guidance and who are in
+full sympathy with home churches. The ideal mission is that which, on the
+one hand, enjoys a large degree of autonomy in the conduct of its affairs,
+and yet which, on the other hand, is wisely supported and strengthened by
+the restraining influence, suggestion and even the occasional initiative
+of a well-formed home committee.
+
+The relation of the mission to its own members should always be firm and
+its authority kindly and wisely exercised. There may arise a serious
+danger of too much individualism in a mission. A mission which does not
+have a policy of its own and conduct its whole work in harmony with that
+policy, and so control the work of each of its members as to make it fully
+contribute to the realization of its aims, will not attain unto the
+largest success in its efforts. When each missionary is given absolute
+independence to develop his own work on his own lines it will soon be
+found that whatever mission policy there may have been will be crushed out
+by rampant individualism. And when each man is at liberty to follow his
+own inclination and to direct his work according to his own sweet will,
+mission work will have lost its homogeneity. Each section and department
+of the mission will be changed in direction and method of work upon the
+arrival of every new missionary; and thus every blessing of continuity in
+work and of a wholesome mission policy will be lost. I know of missions
+(American, of course) which suffer seriously on this account. I also know
+of other missions which are seriously affected by the opposite difficulty.
+The mission controls its work so completely, even to its last detail, that
+it leaves to the individual missionary no freedom of action and no power
+of initiative. The mission, in solemn conclave, decides even the character
+and quantity of food which must be given each child in a boarding school
+conducted by one of its missionaries! A control which reaches into such
+petty details as this, is not only a waste of time to the mission itself;
+it seriously compromises the dignity, and destroys the sense of
+responsibility, of the individual missionary. It takes away from him the
+power of initiative and thus largely diminishes his efficiency.
+
+The ideal mission is that which gives to each of its members some latitude
+for judgment and direction, but which has a definite policy of its own and
+sees to it that this policy is, in the main, respected and supported by
+every one of its missionaries.
+
+It is an interesting fact, in the study of the missions of India, that the
+American Missions, on the whole, represent the largest degree, both of
+mission autonomy and of missionary individualism. The farther we pass east
+from America the more do we see mission autonomy yield to the control of
+the home society; and the independence of the missionary lost in the
+absoluteness of mission supervision.
+
+How far shall missions give the power of franchise to their lady members
+in the conduct of mission affairs? The last few years has seen this
+question agitated by many missions. They differ largely in this matter.
+The Madura Mission has settled the problem by giving to the women absolute
+equality with the men. This, probably, is an ideal solution. But it should
+be accompanied by a similar movement in the missionary societies at
+Boston. The position at present is anomalous in that mission; for while it
+has given to both sexes equal rights of franchise and is therefore a unit
+in administrative power, the societies at home which support the general,
+and the woman’s parts of the mission activity are entirely separate from
+and independent of each other. It is not too much to hope that, at an
+early date, the relations of the home societies may be changed towards
+unity of action, to correspond with the present situation in the mission
+field.
+
+The relation of missions contiguous to each other in foreign lands is a
+subject which is increasingly engaging the thought of all missionaries. In
+the past, missions of different denominations lived largely isolated from,
+and absolutely indifferent to, each other’s welfare. There was much
+friction and jealousy, coupled with a readiness to disregard each other’s
+feelings and a willingness to take advantage of each other’s weaknesses. I
+am glad to say that that era is gradually giving way to a time of better
+feeling, when sympathy and appreciation, fellowship and coöperation are
+becoming the watchwords. During the last few years marked progress has
+been seen in India in the line of amity and comity between the Protestant
+Missions of the land. Recently, a large Conference of Christian
+Missionaries was convened in Madras representing the thirty-five
+Protestant Missions of South India. Missions which formerly held aloof
+from their sister missions and declined to fraternize in any way with
+them, came on this occasion and heartily joined in the universal good
+feeling and desire for fellowship among all. Coöperation was the watchword
+heard in all discussions at that great Conference; and since that day
+increasing effort has been put forth to bring several of the more nearly
+related of these missions, not only into coöperation in work, but also
+into organic unity. For instance the missions of the Free Church of
+Scotland and of the Dutch Reformed Church of America have met, through
+their representatives, and have perfected a scheme of ecclesiastical union
+and of coöperation in work. And already expressions of hearty desire have
+been made that the missions of the Congregational denominations unite with
+these Presbyterian Missions in this Scheme of Union. I believe that it
+will require but a short time for the perfecting of such a union among all
+these kindred missions. Thus and thus only can we hope to teach to our
+native Christians the growing oneness of God’s people; and thus also do we
+hope to reduce considerably the expenses of the work in that land. For, by
+thus uniting our forces, we shall be able to reduce the number of our
+special institutions for the training of our agency and the development of
+our work. Nothing can further the cause of economy in mission lands today
+more than the union of mission institutions now built on denominational
+lines and expensively conducted in all the missions. I believe in
+denominationalism. It has its mission in the world and has done much good.
+But a narrow, selfish, denominationalism on the mission field, and in the
+presence both of the infant native church and of the inquiring Hindu
+community, is one of the most serious evils that can befall the cause of
+Christ in India.
+
+We should all pray for the day when all narrowness in this matter shall
+yield to the broadest sympathy, love and coöperation. And, perhaps, the
+best way to answer our prayers in this matter is by furthering the noble
+cause of Christian union among the denominations and churches here at
+home.
+
+The old illustration, taken from the rice fields of South India, is apt
+and instructive. These fields are small and divided by low banks. The
+banks serve the purpose of separating the fields of different persons, of
+furnishing water channels and of facilitating the irrigation. When the
+crops are young and low every field is seen marked out by its banks. But
+as the crops grow the banks are hidden and we see nothing but one great
+expense of waving grain ready for the harvest. So, while the useful,
+denominational banks which have divided us in mission lands are still
+there we thank God that they are being hidden more, year by year, as the
+harvest of Christian love and fellowship is approaching.
+
+3. The organic structure of a mission in the early stages of its growth is
+a very simple thing; as it achieves increasing success the necessities of
+the situation compel it to add to its efficiency by widening its scope and
+increasing its functions and multiplying its departments of work. A
+hundred years ago, or less, as the missionary entered virgin soil and
+began to cultivate a new mission field, he devoted himself, almost
+exclusively, to the work of preaching the gospel to the heathen. Presently
+the gospel message found entrance into the hearts of a few and they were
+formed into a congregation. At once he began to train this infant
+congregation and selected one or more of the most promising of its number
+for special instruction and initiation into the duties of Christian
+service. He then took this nucleus of a native agency with himself on
+preaching tours until new accessions to the faith were gained and new
+congregations established. As the congregations multiplied his work as an
+evangelist had to give way, in part, to his efforts to train an adequate
+native agency to guide and nourish the growing Christian community. There
+was also added to this the pastoral care and superintendence of
+congregations new and old. Later on he felt the need of schools to train
+the young of his congregations; he also began to realize the value of
+educational work for non-Christians as a means of presenting to them the
+gospel of Christ. Thus a system of schools was gradually established, both
+for Christians and for non-Christians which not only required his care,
+but also demanded a force of Christian teachers adequate to this
+increasing work. So, institutions for the systematic training of teachers
+and preachers had to be established. Under the influence of these schools
+intelligence grew apace and was suitably met and satisfied by a developing
+Christian literature—a literature which met the needs of the Christian and
+heathen alike.
+
+Moreover as he studied the physical condition of the surrounding people he
+was appalled by the prevalence of disease and the inadequacy, yea, even
+the evil, of the system of medical treatment which obtained there; and so
+his heart was drawn out to the need of making some provision for modern
+medical aid. As the community continued to grow and the number of young
+people multiplied, in church and congregation alike, he became impressed
+with the need of organizations whereby this latent youthful power might be
+conserved, increased and utilized for the Glory of God.
+
+In this way the primitive missions of the past have actually developed
+into the powerful organizations of the present. One must study, on the
+spot, one of the larger missions of India today in order to appreciate
+what a complicated organism it is. He then will see how it has sent out
+its ramifications into all departments of life and of Christian activity.
+It has laid its hands, in organized power, upon every department of
+Christian work which can be made to contribute to the furtherance of the
+cause of Christ in that field. In this way have come into existence the
+following departments, which are represented in more or less fullness in
+all the missions of India today.
+
+
+
+
+(_a_) The Evangelistic Department.
+
+
+This, as we have seen, is the oldest as it is the most fundamental, of all
+organized missionary activities. And it should retain its prominence in
+missionary effort. It was preëminently the method of Christ. He was the
+Heavenly Messenger proclaiming that the Kingdom of God was at hand. He was
+first of all the great Preacher; “and the people everywhere heard Him
+gladly.” The missionary of the Cross never feels that he is more directly
+in the footsteps of his Master than when he is preaching to the unchurched
+and Christless masses. There is to this work a joy and an exhilaration
+which are peculiarly its own, even though it is a work fraught with
+physical weariness. I have felt, in the prosecution of this work, more
+satisfaction than almost in any other. Not that I regard it as the most
+successful form of labour. It is not. Even as a direct evangelizing
+agency, I believe that it must yield precedence in India to school-work.
+The faithful Christian teacher is now a more successful evangelist in that
+land than the preacher himself. And yet the preacher reaches and offers
+light and gracious opportunity to the more benighted and the more
+neglected members of the community. Without making special choice of any
+favoured class he sows broadcast the seed, preaches the divine Word,
+praying that the Lord himself, who also preached to the common people,
+bestow his richest blessing upon the labour which he has done in his name.
+
+This work of preaching Christ to those who know him not, must be carried
+on by missionaries and agents. It is usually the custom to expect that
+every mission agent shall devote some of his time in visiting neighbouring
+villages and in gathering the people together and in presenting to them,
+in all simplicity, the message of salvation. Frequently these teachers,
+catechists and pastors take with them some of the members of their
+congregations to help them, by song and by the influence of their
+presence, to present their message effectively to the people; and thus the
+Christians also receive a most useful training in this elementary part of
+Christian service.
+
+From time to time special itineracies are conducted by a band of mission
+agents who will spend a week or more in traversing a whole region,
+preaching in every village and street as they pass along their journey.
+These itineracies are conducted in various ways, but are always most
+helpful in the evangelization of the district.
+
+Some of the best organized missions are adding emphasis to this work by
+devoting missionaries specially to the conduct of it. These men gather
+bands of native preachers around them who spend their time and strength in
+preaching and in disseminating gospel truth in the neglected regions of
+their fields.
+
+Theological seminaries also give a part of their time to this excellent
+work. The seminary, with which I am connected, gave, during the year 1900,
+five weeks to village work. Teachers and students travelled hundreds of
+miles among the villages of the neglected part of the field and carried
+the message to more than 50,000 people. This was not only a joyful
+service, it was also a most helpful experience to the young students while
+undergoing their theological training.
+
+But, as the native Church, in a mission, grows in numbers and in
+intelligence, the work of evangelism becomes its special duty. If the
+Church does not enter, with added joy and power, into this department of
+its work; and if it does not voluntarily assume, with ever increasing
+fullness, this form of Christian activity, there is something radically
+wrong about it. It should be the prayer and purpose of the missionary that
+every church and congregation established by him become a centre of
+evangelistic power, whence will radiate divine light and heat into
+adjacent hamlets and villages. I am glad to say that, so far as my
+observation goes, the native Church is undertaking this work with
+increasing zeal and with a growing impulse from within, rather than by
+pressure from without. In the Madura Mission, through the Home Missionary
+Society and its auxiliaries, and through the organizations of the native
+women, at least eighteen men and women are being supported for this
+especial work of evangelism. And the number of members of churches, who
+engage voluntarily in this work, is every year growing.
+
+The character of this preaching is a matter of importance. In India it
+should be, largely, if not exclusively, constructive rather than
+destructive. Forces destructive to a belief in Hinduism and its numberless
+superstitions have multiplied wonderfully in that land during the last
+fifty years. So that there is no necessity, today, that the Christian
+preacher spend any of his time in attacking the errors and evils of the
+ancestral faith of the people. He should give himself to the more
+agreeable and blessed work of imparting the living truth of the Gospel in
+all directness and simplicity. The destructive agencies of the
+civilization, knowledge and religious institutions of the West have
+accomplished their work and have made straight the pathway of the Gospel
+Messenger into the mind and heart of the people. Thus, it is not the abuse
+of the old, but the exposition of the new, faith which should occupy the
+time of the preacher to Hindus today. It has been my own custom, and I
+always urge it upon my students, to avoid the temptation of attacking
+Hinduism, and to preach a simple Gospel of salvation.
+
+
+
+
+(_b_) Pastoral Work.
+
+
+The rapidly increasing number of churches and congregations has added much
+to the pastoral duties of a mission. Formerly missionaries themselves
+acted as pastors and shepherded the flocks in the villages. Even today
+some of the German missions have missionary pastors. But this is now
+exceptional. Missions generally have learned that, for native
+congregations, native pastors are essential. They not only are better
+adapted, by nature and by training, to meet the needs of the native
+Church; they are also the only ones that are within the range of the
+financial possibilities of self-support. And self-support must be ever
+held before the church as a high future blessing and duty of the Christian
+community.
+
+        [Illustration: Theological Students With Their Families.]
+
+                 [Illustration: Group Of Madura Pastors.]
+
+And yet the day when the pastoral work can be effectively and
+satisfactorily done by the natives themselves has hardly arrived. Few
+native pastors today, and much fewer catechists, are competent, both on
+the score of character and of independence, to wisely direct the affairs
+of their people and to efficiently preserve church discipline. This is a
+sad confession to make; but truth compels me to make it—a truth emphasized
+more than once by long experience among them. A few years ago a church
+within my jurisdiction wished to expel a leading member whom it knew to be
+a godless man. He had become a curse to the community, and nothing but
+excommunication seemed wise or possible. I visited the church for the
+purpose of assisting the pastor in the administration of the Lord’s Supper
+and of studying the general condition of the church. And we attempted,
+congregationally, to discipline this member. The church was asked to vote,
+in case it thought wise, to excommunicate the man; but not a hand was
+raised. The matter was further explained to them, and all those who were
+in favour of his expulsion were requested to raise the hand. Again not a
+hand was raised! The pastor, thereupon, explained the situation by stating
+that the people were afraid of the man and dared not vote against him even
+though he was not present. The pastor was himself equally timid in the
+situation. Thereupon I asked those of them who desired that _I_ should act
+in this matter _for the church_ to raise the hand; whereupon every hand of
+pastor and people was immediately raised; and I fulfilled their wish by
+excommunicating, in their name, the evil member!
+
+This may or may not be Congregationalism; but it illustrates the fact
+which I am now dwelling upon, viz.: that for the present, both pastor and
+people are unequal to the severe duties of church discipline. Every month
+the missionary is confronted with similar situations which reveal to him
+the necessity of his presence as a superintending pastor and the urgent
+need of his wisdom to direct the affairs of the church, his firmness to
+put an end to many impossible situations, and his inspiration to tone up
+and give backbone to pastors and other agents connected with him. It
+should not be forgotten that, while the infant community connected with
+each mission has many admirable traits of piety and of character, it is
+still the victim of great weakness in matters of purity, of fellowship and
+of Christian peace. So that if the Church is to be preserved from many
+intolerable evils and brought into the noble traits of a Christian
+character which will impress itself upon the non-Christian community there
+must be firm guidance, stern repression of evil and wise inspiration to
+good on the part of the native pastoral force under the bracing influence
+of missionary guidance. To those who are conversant with the condition of
+the native Church in India there is a supreme conviction that its greatest
+danger lies in the irregularity of the life of its members and in its want
+of firm discipline and the preservation of purity rather than in the
+fewness of accessions from heathenism. Hence the importance of the work of
+shepherding Christ’s feeble flock in that land. The training of suitable
+native agents for this work is a duty of paramount importance; and the
+training must be continued through their life by the presence of the
+missionary to guide, restrain and inspire.
+
+
+
+
+(_c_) The Educational Department.
+
+
+In large, well-organized missions, the educational department is now
+perhaps the most important and all-pervasive. As a mission grows, this
+department usually develops more rapidly than any other of its organized
+activities. This work is divided into three classes:
+
+
+
+Schools for Non-Christians.
+
+
+These are especially established with a view to reaching and affecting the
+non-Christian community. They have developed wonderfully during the last
+half-century and hold an important place in the economy of missions. They
+represent the leaven of Christianity in India. They are preëminently an
+evangelistic agency. They furnish excellent opportunity to present Christ
+and His Gospel of salvation to a large host of young people under very
+favorable circumstances. These institutions are of two classes—primary
+schools in villages and high schools and colleges at centres of influence
+and culture.
+
+They have been the object of attack from men of narrow missionary sympathy
+and of limited horizon. These men claim that money expended on such
+institutions is a waste of mission funds. But they have failed to
+recognize the significant fact, which I have already mentioned, that these
+institutions undoubtedly furnish the best opportunity for missionary
+evangelistic work. And I fearlessly maintain that more conversions take
+place, and more accessions are made, through these schools than through
+any other agency, apart from the Christian Church itself. Not a few of the
+village primary schools become _nuclei_ to Christian congregations, which
+flourish and develop into Christian churches. And through the higher
+institutions some of the best and strongest members of the Christian
+community have been won from Hinduism. All this, apart from the fact that
+these institutions perform an unspeakably important function in the
+dissemination of light throughout the whole Hindu community and in the
+leavening of the whole mass of Hindu thought and institutions. The good
+done by this class of institutions is beyond computation in that land.
+
+
+
+Schools for Christian Children.
+
+
+It is the worthy ambition of every mission and missionary to train the
+children of the Christians so that they may rise, not only in
+intelligence, but also in social life and position. Under this class of
+schools the native Christian community is being rapidly developed and
+educated, so that it is already in advance of any other community in
+general literacy.
+
+Among these schools for Christians are industrial institutions for the
+training of boys and girls in manual labour. At the present time there
+seems to be a growing tendency to magnify this department of work. These
+schools are given to training in carpentry, blacksmithing, weaving,
+brass-work, rattan-work, etc. The Germans have entered more fully into
+this effort than any other missions in India. But they are not loud in its
+praise as a department of _mission_ work. It certainly has both merits and
+demerits which we shall consider later.
+
+During the last decade a few missionaries have launched out upon a new
+enterprise in the shape of Peasant Settlements. One object of these is to
+train the poor and improvident members of the community, especially the
+socially submerged classes, to habits of thrift, economy and independence.
+It is also conducted as a philanthropy for the purpose of raising the
+people socially and industrially through new methods and forms of
+agriculture. This movement is still in its infancy.
+
+
+
+Training Institutions for Mission Agents.
+
+
+It is the duty of every mission to train for itself an efficient class of
+men and women who shall conduct all the departments of missionary work and
+gradually relieve the missionary of many of his duties. These schools are
+of many kinds corresponding with the various classes of agencies required.
+
+This may be illustrated by the institutions now found in the Madura
+Mission. Nearly every one of the twelve out-stations of that mission has a
+boarding school for Christian boys and girls. The best students who
+graduate from these schools, especially those who are deemed worthy to
+become future candidates for mission service, go to Pasumalai and to
+Madura for further, and professional, training. At Pasumalai young men may
+pass through the High School and even the college department. They are
+then placed in the normal department, to qualify them as teachers, or in
+the Theological Seminary, to prepare them as preachers and pastors. So,
+also, girls are placed in the Madura Girls’ High and Training School and
+are there qualified for one of three grades of teachership. Or they may be
+placed in the Bible Woman’s Training School where they receive a
+two-years’ course of training for work as Bible women.
+
+The only class of agents which is not trained by the Madura Mission is
+that of medical assistants. I trust that the mission’s desire for funds to
+establish this work also may be gratified and that thus we may have the
+means of training suitable agents for every department of our missionary
+work. No mission can be complete unless it has some means of furnishing
+itself with an efficient agency to conduct all departments of its
+activity.
+
+The only danger connected with the excellent educational department of
+work is, lest it should outgrow and overshadow all other departments. This
+danger is at present manifesting itself in some missions. It is an
+attractive form of work which allures the missionary; and, for several
+reasons, he yields to the temptation of emphasizing it out of proportion
+to its relative value and gives more time and money to it than a wise
+place in mission economy demands. The ideal arrangement for a mission
+would seem to be to keep well in front its evangelistic and pastoral
+endeavour, and to utilize all forms of educational work with a view to
+strengthening and furthering these. It is true that certain missions, like
+certain individuals, have a special genius or talent of their own; and
+their highest success will depend upon their following that bent. For
+instance, the Free Church of Scotland, in South India, has shown eminent
+ability and taste in the work of education. It has met with distinguished
+success in that line of effort, and its college for boys and high schools
+for girls in Madras bear testimony to its eminent success in this
+department. In evangelistic work it has thus far neither shown much
+interest nor large aptitude. The Wesleyan Methodists, on the other hand,
+are born evangelists and find their chief success as preachers of the
+gospel. Each mission should not only consider its field and its claims and
+needs, it should also study its own corporate gift and bent and then
+strive to develop its work mainly upon those lines which are most
+congenial to it.
+
+
+
+
+(_d_) Literary Work.
+
+
+The creation and circulation of a healthy Christian literature has always
+been recognized by our missions as a work of paramount importance. While
+not many missionaries have devoted themselves exclusively to this work,
+yet not a little has been accomplished in it by the missions. If not much
+that is original and brilliant has issued from the missionary pen; and if
+it stands sadly true that too few have seriously undertaken this work; it
+is nevertheless a cause of thanksgiving that Christian truth has been
+extensively expounded and defended by them, and that they have sent forth
+from the press a continual stream of blessing to all the people.
+
+In India, three strong societies aid the missions by engaging directly in
+the production and dissemination of Christian literature. These are the
+Bible Society, the Tract Society and the Christian Literature Society.
+These institutions have spent large sums of money in the translation,
+revision and circulation of the Holy Scriptures and in the furnishing of
+fresh, readable and informing tracts and books in explanation,
+illustration and defense of Christianity. The far-reaching results of the
+work of these societies no one can adequately estimate. The need of this
+department of work is not only great, it is growing annually. Missions
+feel this keenly and are unwilling to depend entirely upon the above
+mentioned societies. Each mission of any importance has one, or more,
+printing establishments with which it can prepare and issue tracts and
+books of its own, and whereby it may present special truths and teachings
+which seem to it urgently needed by its people. Through these presses the
+missions publish also 147 newspapers and magazines for the special use of
+the Christian people and others. In this way forty-one printing
+establishments, employing no fewer than 2,000 men, are utilized by the
+Protestant missions of India in the production of healthy literature for
+the furtherance of the cause of Christ in that land.
+
+In this department two special classes are kept in view. The growing
+Christian community must be provided with suitable books in the
+vernaculars. Books devotional for the mass of Christians, and text-books
+for the students in our professional schools, and helpful books of
+instruction for the large body of Christian agents are needed. All these
+make an increasing demand upon the literary fertility of writers and
+authors on the mission field.
+
+There is also a growing demand, and an urgent need, for good books adapted
+to the non-Christian community—such tracts and books as can present to
+them, in an attractive and convincing way, the special truths and the
+supreme excellence of our faith. The number is annually increasing, both
+among native Christians and in the non-Christian community, of those who
+can read and whose taste for books is growing.
+
+This method of approach to the mind of the people has peculiar advantages
+of its own. The prejudices connected with Christian instruction, as it
+proceeds directly from the lips of the teacher or preacher, does not exist
+in connection with tracts and books. These printed messengers of truth and
+salvation quietly and effectively do their work in the silent hours of the
+night and in the secret recesses of the woods or of the solitary chamber.
+And this message is the more effective because it may be read and pondered
+more than once, until its truth grips the soul in convicting and saving
+power.
+
+The power of the printed page, as a Christian messenger in India, is
+second to none at present; and its influence will multiply mightily as the
+years increase. Missions and individual missionaries should enter more
+fully into this work; none needs increasing emphasis more than this; and
+none has larger hopes of preëminence in the great work of India’s
+redemption. Missionary societies also should devote more men, than in the
+past, to the creation of a strong Christian literature.
+
+And even where missions are too weak to publish anything of their own and
+are unable to write books or tracts; there is a wide field of usefulness
+open to them in a thoroughly systematic and energetic work of distributing
+the existing literature produced by the great societies. In some missions
+this work of circulating Scriptures and Christian books has been reduced
+almost to a science and has become an exceedingly efficient help to the
+cause in those districts. Other missions have yet to learn the importance
+and blessing of this activity.
+
+
+
+
+(_e_) Medical Work.
+
+
+This department of missionary effort has a wide sphere of usefulness.
+Though not so urgently necessary now as in former times in India, owing to
+the ubiquitous and efficient Government Medical Department, it is
+nevertheless popular and very useful. This is specially so when the whole
+work and its agency are brought into full subjection to the Christian, as
+distinct from the purely humanitarian, motive. No other department is more
+capable of being utilized as an evangelizing agency; and in many missions
+its influence is thus widely felt. Everywhere its aid to other departments
+of mission work is much appreciated through its ability to gain friends
+for our cause among those who would otherwise be inimical; and in
+preparing the hearts of many to receive spiritual help from the Great
+Physician. No fewer than forty hospitals, besides many dispensaries, are
+conducted by Protestant missions in India today. Many of the medical
+missionaries give their whole time to this work; others conduct the
+medical as only one of the departments of their missionary activity. To
+each method there are advantages and disadvantages; though, perhaps, the
+medical missionary finds greatest usefulness when he gives himself
+entirely to his profession as physician. But, in that case, he needs
+tenfold caution lest the distinctively missionary idea of his life-work
+should be subjected to, or lost in, the professional and the humanitarian
+spirit.
+
+Medical work for women and children finds in India today perhaps its most
+urgent call. There is more need and suffering among them than among men.
+
+
+
+
+(_f_) Work for Women.
+
+
+From the first, missions have not neglected woman. She has been their
+care, and her conversion and elevation their ambition. But, in recent
+times, much has been added to this. Not only have separate and definite
+forms of work been opened _for_ women; organized work _by_ women in their
+behalf has suddenly taken high rank and attained considerable popularity
+among Christian peoples. Under Women’s Missionary Societies fully 1,000
+ladies have come to India and are giving themselves exclusively to work
+for their Indian sisters. All forms of effort are undertaken in their
+behalf. Assisted by an army of thousands of native Bible women, Zenana
+workers and mistresses, these ladies perform their noble service. Hindu
+homes are daily and everywhere visited, and the seed of Christian life and
+truth sown; thousands of non-Christian girls and young women are
+instructed and initiated into the mysteries of Bible truth and Christian
+life; and Christian womanhood is being developed, more rapidly indeed than
+Christian manhood, into a thing of strength and beauty. In the town of
+Madura alone thirty-one Bible women have access to 1,000 non-Christian
+homes where Bible instruction is gladly received. Another staff of
+twenty-one Christian workers instructs daily, in five schools, 500 Hindu
+and Mohammedan girls. Also a High and Training school for Christian girls,
+with 256 pupils; and a Bible woman’s training school, with seventeen
+students, complete this organized work for women in that town. From it, as
+a centre, seventeen other women visit and work in seventy-two different
+villages and instruct 1,005 pupils. No work at present is more important
+or finds more encouragement than this organized activity for women.
+
+           [Illustration: A Junior Christian Endeavor Society.]
+
+               [Illustration: A Village Christian School.]
+
+
+
+
+(_g_) Work for the Young.
+
+
+Ours is preëminently the age of youth—the time when the importance of work
+for the young is fully appreciated, and when manifold activities are put
+forth by the Christian Church in their behalf. During recent years such
+activity has been extensively introduced into mission fields. In India at
+present, Y. M. C. A., Y. W. C. A., Y. P. S. C. E., Epworth League,
+Sunday-school Union and a host of other less-known organizations for the
+young have established themselves and are working with much enthusiasm. In
+former years little was done for the young of the infant Christian
+communities. The old Oriental idea that young people are of no account,
+and that effort in their behalf is hardly worth while, obtained in India
+until recent years. The consequence was that the children of Christian
+congregations were neglected and allowed to absent themselves from
+Christian services and to grow up in ignorance and heathenish darkness. As
+a result of this many of these boys and girls, when they grew up into
+manhood and womanhood, reverted to heathenism; and many flourishing
+Christian congregations of the last generation became defunct. It is now
+understood, with increasing distinctness, that the permanent success and
+growth of a Christian congregation, as of the whole Christian community,
+depends more upon the effort which is exercised in behalf of the young
+than upon any amount of labour lavished upon those of maturer years.
+Hence, more activity, of an organized type, is being wisely put forth in
+behalf of the children and of young people. The more plastic, responsive,
+tenacious mind of the young takes in more readily, appreciates more keenly
+and clings with more persistence to religious instruction and inspiration
+imparted to it than does that of the older members of the community. The
+Christian worker thus finds earlier and greater fruit to his labour among
+the young than among the old. Any enthusiasm imparted by him to the young
+people is also, sooner or later, apt to be carried by them to the older
+members of the congregation or church. The hope of the Church in India
+lies in the young people; and that missionary, or native agent, who can
+best organize the young into useful forms of outgoing Christian activity,
+will do most for the Church of the present and future. And, while so
+excellent an agency as the Christian Endeavor Society is available for use
+in this line of work, the missionary need not be discouraged, but may feel
+confident that he has within his power an organization rich in promise of
+blessing to his whole community.
+
+
+
+
+(_h_) Organizations for the Special Activities of the Native Christian
+Community.
+
+
+Every mission should encourage all forms of wise and necessary
+organization for the furtherance of the highest life of the community
+itself. And this chiefly with a view to developing self-dependence in the
+community. These organizations will be naturally divided into two classes.
+
+_Those Which Promote Self-Government._
+
+The Christian Church in the mission field should be organized
+ecclesiastically and administratively in such a way that it may
+ultimately, and as speedily as may seem wise, become entirely
+self-governing. Every mission should aim to so teach the people that they
+may control and conduct successfully their own affairs. It should
+establish a Church which sends its roots deep into the soil of the land
+and which will become, in the highest sense, indigenous. One of the
+necessary evils of missionary life is the early Western control and
+guidance of everything. I should like to see the day, when the native
+Church can establish that polity which is most congenial to its taste and
+run its affairs independently and on Oriental lines, in such a way as to
+win more effectively the people of India to Christ. The question is
+sometimes asked,—“Must our Congregational missions bind, to our
+Congregational form of ecclesiastical government, the people whom they
+bring over from heathenism? Must our church polity, in the mission field,
+be Congregational, or Presbyterian, etc., regardless of its adaptation, or
+want of adaptation, to the people?” The affirmative answer has usually
+been given by all societies (and wrongly I think) to this inquiry; and
+thus every denomination transplants into heathen lands, with renewed
+emphasis, not only its own peculiar shibboleths of doctrine; it also
+exalts to a heavenly command the government and ritual which it
+represents.
+
+Missions in India are conscientiously endeavouring, with varying degrees
+of wisdom and success, to lead forward their people in the line of
+self-government. But both love of power and a conviction of the inability
+of the infant Church to wisely control its affairs, combine to render this
+transfer of power from the mission to the native Church a very slow
+matter—more slow than seems wise to many besides the leaders of the native
+Church themselves. It is a significant fact, in India today, that the
+Methodist missions, by their compact organization, are able to, or at any
+rate do, confer more ecclesiastical and administrative power upon the
+native Church than any other mission; while Congregational missions—the
+least organized—are the most backward in this matter. A study for the
+causes of this would be instructive.
+
+_Those Organisations Which Promote Self-Extension._
+
+One of the first things that a mission should do, after gathering the
+Christian community, is to organize, in the community, such activities as
+are outreaching and self-extending. In the Madura Mission there has been
+for many years a Home Missionary Society whose aim is to help support weak
+churches and also maintain a force of evangelists to preach to
+non-Christians. It is the society of the native Christians—supported and
+largely directed by them. It has created, maintained and increased the
+interest of the people in furthering the cause of Christ.
+
+Many such societies exist in India today and they render valuable service
+in keeping before the mind of the people the deepest characteristics of
+our faith and the highest privilege of a Christian community—that of
+outgoing love, and self-extending enthusiasm.
+
+_Those Organisations Which Further Self-Support._
+
+How extensively should the idea of self-support be at present urged upon
+the native Christian community? This is a question which we will discuss
+later on. There is no question however but that every mission should so
+organize its benevolences that the infant Church may, at as early a date
+as possible, cease to seek support from a foreign land; and that it
+cultivate at the same time a spirit of self-denial and of self-reliance.
+The poverty of the people is, and will long remain, a serious barrier to
+this consummation. But the evil of poverty may be counterbalanced by a
+careful system whereby the benevolent feelings, generous impulses and the
+sense of obligation of the people are conserved, strengthened and made
+fully effective. This matter should not be left to haphazard or to
+spasmodic appeal. Every Christian, even the poorest, should be so directed
+and inspired in his benevolence that he may effectively contribute to the
+worthy object of self-support.
+
+These three _desiderata_ of the native Christian Church—self-support,
+self-propagation and self-government—are to be desired above all other
+blessings by the missions and should be sought with a persistence and a
+well-organized intelligence, which will mean advance and ultimate success.
+When these three have been attained, missions, with all their expensive
+machinery, may gladly disband and feel that their end has been
+accomplished and that they are no longer needed.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               Chapter IX.
+
+
+PRESENT DAY MISSIONARY PROBLEMS.
+
+
+Every age has its own problems to solve; and so has every department of
+life. The problems which belong to missionary life, method and work are
+many. The permanence and future success of the missionary effort of the
+Church of God depends upon the wise solution of these problems. Nowhere is
+this more manifest than in India. In that land Christian effort for the
+conversion of the people has been made for many centuries by numerous
+nationalities and Christian communities with varying success or want of
+success. Unwillingness or an inability to thoroughly confront and master
+the deep problems of the field, the work and the people, with a view to
+adapting Christianity to them has largely been the cause of the slow
+progress of our faith in that land. Successive efforts by the Greek, the
+Syrian, the Romish and the Protestant Churches have not been prolific in
+marked and permanent results, simply because they have not adequately
+studied the novel and strange conditions of the land and the best methods
+of presenting Christ and His truth.
+
+We need in India, today, highest wisdom in order to establish worthy
+missions, and to conduct them in the right and best way so as to attain
+results commensurate with the resources of the kingdom and of the great
+King whose we are and whom we preach.
+
+The missionary problems of today are many.
+
+1. The initial and preliminary question as to the right of the Christian
+Church to send forth its missionaries, and to establish its missions in
+heathen lands.
+
+This question is now raised by many. They ask it because they believe in
+the integrity of the doctrine of evolution. “Why do you not,” they say,
+“leave those non-Christian peoples to work out their own salvation through
+a natural evolution of their own faiths? Let those old crude religions
+pass into something higher through the natural process of evolution rather
+than resort to the cataclysmic method of over-throwing the old and
+introducing a faith that is entirely foreign. Why not let the process of
+growth work out its own results even though it takes a long time for it?”
+
+This objection to our work is modern and thoroughgoing. Of course it is
+equally pronounced against supernaturalism in all its forms and
+ramifications. It would be futile to reply to this by appealing to the
+command of our Lord to go and disciple all nations. It is enough to remind
+this objector that the doctrine of evolution admits that the highest
+altruism is a part of the evolution process. And if that is so, then the
+highest Christian altruism must find its noblest exercise in the work of
+bringing, by Christians to non-Christians, those ideas and that life which
+they deem the best and of which those outside of Christ stand in urgent
+need. The highest evolution of our race has been, and ever must be,
+through that Christian altruism which will not rest until the noblest
+truth and the fullest life are brought to all the benighted souls of our
+race. Is not this the last message of evolution to us at this present? And
+is it not identical with the last commission of our Lord to His
+followers—to go and disciple the nations? And while it is the function of
+Christianity to maintain the evolution principle of the survival of the
+fittest, it does this by indirection—by seizing upon the most unfit and
+unworthy and making them fit to stand before God and worthy to enjoy the
+life eternal in all its glory.
+
+Moving a step forward we come to,—
+
+Another problem kindred to the one mentioned—one which concerns the aims
+and the results which should animate missionary endeavour.
+
+2. What shall a man or a mission entertain as a motive or as an aim to be
+attained and as results worthy of achievement in missionary work?
+
+This question also is based upon and will cover very largely the character
+of the work accomplished.
+
+There are two distinct and separate motives and aims impelling Christians,
+at the present time, to missionary effort. They are, in the main, an
+emphasis given, respectively, to each of Christ’s two final commands to
+his disciples upon earth.
+
+In the first instance his last commission to his followers to go and make
+disciples of the nations is taken as the watch-word; and this has always
+meant thorough, patient, all-inclusive effort for the redemption and
+elevation of all the races of the earth.
+
+The other class has taken as its watch-word our Lord’s last utterance upon
+earth—“Ye shall be My witnesses.” “Witness-bearing” has become to them the
+expression of the Church’s great duty to the world.
+
+There is a great difference between these two classes of aims and motives,
+and they are associated with two classes of theological thinking.
+According to the former theory the Kingdom of our Lord, under the
+dispensation of the Holy Spirit, is to spread in regenerating power and
+triumphant efficacy until all the nations of the earth shall come under
+its sway. This is a great and arduous undertaking. The planting of this
+Kingdom in heathen lands and the discipling of those people until the
+Church of God shall have become a living and a self-propagating church in
+all the regions of the earth is a work of ages, worthy of the combined
+effort of heaven and earth. And this consummation will surely take place.
+God has promised it; Christ’s work involves it; the Holy Spirit came into
+the world for its realization. They who entertain this belief are
+Christian optimists. No reverses can daunt them; no opposition can
+discourage them. They lay broad and deep the foundations of their work and
+labour patiently but hopefully for the great and final consummation.
+
+Those, on the other hand, who are pessimistic as to the triumph of the
+Kingdom of Christ under the dispensation of the Spirit, maintain, with
+exclusive emphasis, the Christian duty of witness-bearing. They claim, in
+Dr. Pierson’s words, that our mission to the heathen world should be one
+of diffusion and not of concentration; that we should bear witness
+concerning Christ to the people who know Him not and then pass on to
+others, rather than remain to expand, to convert, to train and to
+establish living churches. They maintain that our duty is preëminently to
+bear witness to Christ, that we have no responsibility for the conversion
+of the people and for the building up of strong churches.
+
+This claim that it is the duty of the Church to herald the good news of
+redemption to all men as speedily as possible apart from the expectation
+that they will accept it: does not commend itself to me either upon
+Scriptural grounds or upon grounds of reason.
+
+The idea of preaching the gospel to the heathen “for a witness,” in the
+ordinary acceptance of that term, does not constitute a worthy Christian
+motive. Dr. W. N. Clark well analyzes this thought in the following words,
+(page 53, in “Study of Christian Missions”),—“At the outset, there is one
+motive, often, though not necessarily, associated with the theory of
+heralding, that must be rejected as no Christian motive. It is often held
+that in this rapid work the gospel is not to be preached mainly in order
+that it may be believed unto salvation, but rather ‘for a witness,’—which
+is taken to mean ‘for a witness against,’ the hearers when they meet the
+judgment of God. The hearing of the gospel marks a turning-point, both in
+experience and destiny. When once men have heard the gospel, they will be
+saved if they believe, and justly condemned if they do not. Only a few
+will be saved by the missionary preaching; the elect will be gathered out
+of the mass, and the many will remain indifferent. But the blame of their
+ruin will be upon themselves, not upon God or the Christian people; and it
+is to insure this result that the gospel is preached to them for a
+witness. But this is no _Christian truth_. Such teaching cannot truly
+represent the motive of God the Saviour. We must maintain that God acts in
+good faith in the offers of His grace, or Christianity becomes a delusion.
+We must preserve our own good faith also in conveying the offer of grace,
+or our hearers will rise in the judgment to condemn us. No allowance
+should be made for any such unchristian motive in our plans for Christian
+missions, and we must hold no theory of missions that implies it.”
+
+Moreover the view is thoroughly pessimistic, so far as this dispensation
+is concerned, and fails to realize the power and the glory of Christian
+truth and of the kingdom of Christ as inspired by the Holy Spirit. A
+theory of missions which is pessimistic at the core can hardly be a safe
+or an inspiring one.
+
+It should be remembered also that missions are not an end in themselves.
+They should aim at making themselves unnecessary by the establishing of
+vigorous churches which shall become self-extending and indigenous in all
+the lands of the earth. The hope of missions, and the hope of the world
+through missions, lies not, ultimately, in the missions, but in the
+churches which they establish. Therefore they should be well established
+and patiently developed. The Church of God must take up its missionary
+work with a full appreciation of its supreme greatness and difficulty. Let
+it not be supposed that it is called simply to “bear witness.” This
+heralding of the gospel of Christ, is only a part, and indeed a small
+part, of the great duty of the Church to the world. It is also
+specifically, and with greater urgency, called upon to _disciple_ the
+nations—to bring them into full possession of saving truth and into joyful
+acceptance of, and life in, Christ.
+
+Let us not delude ourselves with the idea that this work is easy, that we
+can pass over it lightly or that we have no responsibility for the
+conversion of the world. As I have preached for the first time to a
+heathen village I have felt that my obligation to its inhabitants for
+their salvation was thereby increased rather than fulfilled. There is no
+doubt that Christian missionaries realize today as never before the
+greatness of the task set before God’s people to _disciple_ the nations.
+The obstacles to it and the conflict which it involves seem greater than
+ever. The romance of missions has largely given way to sober work and the
+rush of battle has been succeeded by a great siege. This is preëminently
+the condition in India today. Let us not forget this in our missionary
+enterprise lest we lose courage by the way. But let us also remember that
+it is _God’s_ work. He is pledged to bring it to its ultimate triumph, and
+He will do it. He will fulfill His promise and give to His Son the heathen
+for His inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for His
+possession.
+
+_This_ theory of missionary work is the only one that has produced, and
+can maintain, all the present organized activity of the missionary Church.
+The aim of the manifold activities and various departments of missionary
+effort, as witnessed in India today, can be nothing less than the ultimate
+conquest of that land for Christ through the establishment of a living, an
+ever-growing and self-extending Indian Church there.
+
+Let us now consider some of the problems which specially exist in India.
+
+3. THE CASTE PROBLEM.
+
+The caste problem has been, and continues to be, the most troublesome and
+obtrusive among all the questions which confront missions in that land. It
+is a more serious problem—more pervasive and intense—in Southern than in
+Northern India.
+
+This is radically different from social problems in all other lands, in
+that it traces its source to, and gathers its authority from, religion. It
+enforces all that it sanctions by the most compact and relentless
+religious system the world has known. It maintains that men have been
+created into a great number of castes or classes from none of which can
+they, by any possibility, pass into another. In whatever social stratum a
+man is born there must he live and die. It is impious for him to attempt
+to evade or to violate this heavenly classification. His interests and all
+his rights are confined to that one caste of his birth. It is sin for him
+to marry out of it or, in any way, to transgress his natal compact with
+it. Neither added wealth, growing culture, a new ambition, nor anything
+else can enable him to change his caste. All the forces of religion are
+directed, like a mighty engine of tyranny, to bind him to it.
+
+This sentiment of caste, after millenniums of teaching, of rigid
+observance and custom, has become even more than second nature to the
+Hindu,—it has grown into a sweet necessity of his life, from whose claims
+and demands he neither expects nor desires relief. To the ordinary Hindu a
+change of caste would be as unexpected, yea as impossible, as his sudden
+change into the lower brute, or into the higher angelic, kingdom.
+
+When Christianity was first established in India the problem of the
+adoption or the rejection of caste by the Christian church had to be
+faced. It was rejected by the earliest Christian community in India; for
+we find no traces of it in the Syrian church on the coast of Malabar
+today. Even caste titles, that dearest remnant of that system to all other
+native Christians in India, have entirely disappeared from that community.
+It is a great pity that the history of that victory over caste has not
+been preserved as a lesson and a heritage to later Christians.
+
+The Romish Church, which next invaded India, unfortunately despised the
+Syrian community, sought no instruction from its history, made a friend of
+the caste system and adopted it in all its hideousness. It did not wait to
+consider the terrible fact, so patent to all at present, that Hinduism and
+caste are convertible terms—that one cannot cease to be a Hindu who
+maintains the caste system in its integrity. Its intention was, no doubt,
+good in its way. It was an effort to make an easy way out of Hinduism into
+Christianity and thus to swell the tide of incoming converts. But,
+unfortunately, the path was made _too_ easy; the narrow gate was
+sufficiently enlarged for the Hindu to enter with his burden of heathen
+prejudices and superstitions, and it soon became the highway of
+insincerity and hypocrisy. Moreover, the Romish Church has found, to its
+cost, that an easy way from Hinduism to Christianity is an equally easy
+path to return. A man who carried much of his Hinduism with him into the
+Christian Church was easily drawn back by the remaining old ties and
+affections. The consequence is that, while Romanism has made large inroads
+upon Hinduism in some places, it has only been for a time; and the
+back-sliders have been as numerous as the new converts; so that Roman
+Catholicism has made little net progress in India for many years.
+
+This alliance which Christianity made, four centuries ago, with caste was,
+thus, a fatal one. It gave also a clue to the earliest Protestant
+missionaries—a clue which they, in a weak moment, decided to follow. For,
+the first Danish missionaries also made a sad compromise with this monster
+evil. I presume that this may be regarded as a continental failing of that
+day, when in Europe class differences were great and almost
+insurmountable. Human rights and individual liberty were not held so
+sacred, or so scrupulously defended, in Europe in those days as they are
+in Anglo-Saxon countries today. Otherwise any alliance by the Church with
+the caste system would have been an impossibility in India. Even today
+some Protestant missionaries from the European continent are found in
+India who defend the adoption of the caste system by the Christian Church.
+How different would have been the attitude of the Protestant Church
+towards this heathenish institution had men of the Anglo-Saxon type of
+today rather than Continentals of two centuries ago started its work in
+South India! In any case, the attitude of compromise assumed towards the
+caste system in those early days has led to interminable evil and to
+constant trouble in the Christian Church in that land.
+
+After caste had first found admission as a friend and then was discovered
+to be an uncompromising enemy to Christian life and principles, much
+effort was made to expel it. Nearly all Protestant missions now denounce
+it, root and branch, and preach against it, and in various ways try to
+check and to cast it out. But with no great success thus far. The false
+step taken at the beginning has cost the Church terribly. Today in South
+India more than nine-tenths of all Protestant native Christians, while
+they seek an alliance only among Christians, nevertheless marry not on
+lines of Christian affinity so much as on Hindu caste lines. It is not
+often that we find a man among common Christians who has courage and sense
+enough to seek a match for son or daughter outside of the limits of that
+caste to which he and his people belonged in Hinduism. This custom is
+found not only extremely inconvenient and troublesome to them; worst of
+all, it perpetuates, in the Christian fold, the old heathen lines of
+cleavage. And thus life in the Christian community is still running
+somewhat in the old channels of Hinduism and largely preserves those
+social distinctions of the past which should have been buried with them at
+baptism and forever abandoned.
+
+Under these circumstances what should missions do? What should be their
+attitude towards caste spirit and customs? Through former misapprehension
+and neglect the evil is in the Christian Church and exercises a potent
+influence. How shall it be overcome or expelled? Some believe in the
+_laissez faire_ method. They maintain that, if left to itself for a time,
+it will die out, or the general spirit of Christianity will naturally
+drive it out. The spirit of caste is not exorcised in that way. So long as
+it is perpetuated by marriage affinity, the source of the whole evil, and
+by habits of eating together on caste lines, it will not diminish very
+much or cease to torment the Church. A century of such waiting, in some
+missions that I have known, finds the evil not much diminished. It is only
+in those missions where it is attacked and constantly denounced and its
+terrible evils exposed, that progress is evident.
+
+That which can do speedy and sure work, in the destruction of this evil in
+Christian missions is inter-caste marriage. And through this I am glad to
+see that increasing good is wrought. Missions should in every way
+encourage and put a premium upon marriages among their members from
+different castes. They should teach frequently and emphatically that
+membership in different castes does not constitute a prohibited marriage
+relationship; but rather does it furnish the best ground for marriage. In
+this way, and in this way only, will this wretched caste feeling speedily
+die a natural death and Christians come to marry, eat, sympathize, love
+and live on Christian, rather than on Hindu, lines. A mission which does
+not improve every opportunity to show its hatred of the caste system and
+to antagonize it positively and persistently can find no peace; nor will
+it find any permanent prosperity. Missions are feeling this increasingly
+and are acting accordingly.
+
+4. SELF-SUPPORT OF MISSIONS.
+
+Every mission seeks, as its ever-present ambition, to attain unto
+independence from all outside financial aid and a thorough self-support of
+its own institutions. We await the day, and believe in its no distant
+coming, when a large number of mission churches will entirely support
+their own institutions. Indeed there are now many churches, on mission
+ground, that have grown into self-dependence and that maintain, at their
+own expense, all those normal forms of work that are connected with
+Christian activity.
+
+The question is frequently asked,—how far shall missions place before
+them, as the supreme and immediate aim, the self-support of their separate
+churches? Among missions and missionaries there are two tendencies in this
+matter. One class, represented by the Church Missionary Society Mission in
+Tinnevelly, place all moneys received from their mission churches into one
+fund, and from this fund they pay the salaries of the pastors and
+catechists, so far as possible. Bishop Sargent told me that he did not
+think any church should be allowed to directly support its own pastor lest
+they consider that thereby they had a right to exercise authority over
+him! That mission, therefore, and for other reasons also, has relegated
+the direct question of the self-support of each church into the limbo of
+the undesirable. In the American Madura Mission, on the other hand, the
+responsibility is urged upon every individual church to support its own
+spiritual instructor; and all rules and methods are directed towards
+emphasizing and enforcing this. Self-support thus becomes, in that
+mission, its ever-present cry and the growing ambition of its every church
+and congregation. And the progress of the Church and of the mission is
+largely measured by this standard.
+
+The self-support of a mission, as such, is a question which is not looked
+upon with the same urgency, or with the same idea of importance by all
+missions, or by all missionaries. One party, for instance, would make
+self-support the supreme end; everything else must be subordinated to it.
+Nothing should be undertaken, they say, which is not within the means and
+the desire of the people to support. For instance, they maintain that the
+salary of all mission agents and the support of mission institutions must
+be pecuniarily within the means of the Orient and within the limits of its
+ambitions. I ought to say that no mission, to my knowledge, carries out
+this principle in its integrity, although there are some missionaries who
+urge it and proclaim it at all times.
+
+The other party believes that the principal duty and highest privilege of
+a mission, as such, is not immediately to seek self-support or to pare
+everything down to the capacity of the people to give; but to push forward
+the work energetically; with economy indeed, but regardless of expense,
+knowing that vigour and enterprise and a strenuous Western energy today
+will be both amply rewarded in results and will also set a pace for the
+native Church in coming years. They therefore seek the best trained agents
+regardless of the immediate ability of the people to pay their salary. And
+they establish schools and hospitals and various other institutions which
+are altogether beyond the present ability of the Indian Church either to
+found or to maintain.
+
+We must not forget that self-support, _entire_ self-support, is possible
+in any mission from the very first day of its organization, if the mission
+only makes this paramount and has the boldness of its convictions to shape
+its work according to the offerings of the people. And there are some
+advantages to that method. Many of the best missionaries have often felt
+that they would like to try that system in India. Bishop Thoburn, while
+maintaining that it would be impossible to radically change the method of
+an old mission, expressed the conviction that it might be well to
+establish in India a new mission on the basis of complete self-support
+from the beginning. This, doubtless, was the Pauline method; and it
+operated well under the then existing circumstances in those lands. And
+had our missions in the East been established and conducted by the Orient
+instead of the Occident they would have had adequate patience to pursue
+the method of self-support _ab initio_. But as we are of the West,
+Western, our missions must partake of the characteristics of our nature;
+and be imbued with that energy, push, impatience for results which
+distinguish us in everything. I am sure that neither the churches at home
+nor their missionaries abroad are prepared to limit their efforts by the
+poverty, slowness and apathy of the East, and thus perhaps delay for
+years, or generations, the results which, through the expenditure of more
+money, they possibly might reap today. The method which missions have
+adopted is the western method, characteristic of our haste and strenuous
+spirit, and partaking of the evils incident to that spirit and method. It
+is, on the whole, perhaps the best method that can be used and fully
+realized by us.
+
+5. MISSION EDUCATIONAL WORK.
+
+In connection with the increasingly important department of mission
+educational work in India not a few perplexing questions arise. We have
+seen that this department has conquered for itself general recognition as
+a legitimate part of missionary effort.
+
+But there is a serious conflict ahead, in the not distant future. And this
+is in part owing to the attitude of the Government Educational Department
+and of the local governing bodies towards mission institutions. There is
+no concealing the fact that most of the English officials of the
+Educational Department in India deem mission schools the most serious
+rivals to, and regard missionary educators as quasi enemies of, their
+departmental schools. These men have recently assumed, and are
+increasingly assuming, an attitude of jealousy, if not of hostility, to
+mission institutions, chiefly because of their strength and excellence as
+rival schools, and partly because of the Bible training which is imparted
+to all the students of these schools—a training with which those officials
+have no sympathy and which they are wont to regard as an educational
+impertinence.
+
+Missions must expect that the jealousy and the antagonism of that
+department will increase. It is true that the great State Educational
+Despatch of 1854 and later enunciated government policy, declare that it
+is not the purpose of the government to establish schools of its own,
+except where private bodies fail to do so; and that it is its purpose to
+encourage, so far as possible, private institutions. But the general
+declaration of the Imperial and Provincial governments is one thing and
+the purpose and ambition of its Educational Department a very different
+thing. Departmentalists find it to their interest to strengthen and
+increase government schools at all points; and as the funds appropriated
+for educational purposes are inadequate for all schools they seek the
+lion’s share for their own, and grudgingly give an ever decreasing quota
+to mission institutions. It will be an ill day for missions when the
+Educational Department and its schools will become sufficiently strong to
+affect the policy of the general government as against private, and in
+favour of government schools.
+
+Another fact, of equal significance, is the attitude of District Boards
+and Municipal Commissioners towards the schools of Mission Bodies. Nearly
+all the members of Local Boards are native gentlemen. They see the large
+influence of mission schools, scattered as they are through their
+districts and towns, and they regard them as Christian propaganda and as
+evangelizing agencies; and it is but natural that, under the impulse of
+their new nationalism and of their interest in a Neo-Hinduism, they should
+be jealous of mission schools which are the rivals of their own indigenous
+and growing institutions. And as they have the power of the purse and make
+and withhold grants to different schools at their pleasure; and as all the
+subordinate officers of the Educational Department are natives and are not
+in full sympathy with mission schools; it can be easily seen how our
+schools are doomed to suffer through an ever decreasing government aid
+towards their support.
+
+Thus, there are two problems, in this connection, which will confront us.
+One is the question whether it be worth while for missions to conduct
+their schools entirely at their own expense, _i.e._—without any government
+aid. This problem must be faced ere long; and it means either the
+curtailing of this department of work or the expending of a very much
+increased sum of money upon it.
+
+The question may also be urged upon us, more speedily than we anticipate
+(indeed it has been raised already), whether any schools aided by
+government shall be allowed to be used as religious propaganda. In other
+words, whether mission schools shall enjoy the privilege of teaching the
+Bible to all non-Christian students in attendance, even against their
+will. This question is exercising the mind of not a few natives and others
+today; and it is claimed that the present practice is contrary to the
+Royal Proclamation of Religious Neutrality in the land. There is some
+reason for this contention; and, under increasing religious rivalry and
+jealousy, it may, at an early date, lead to a crisis in mission schools.
+And the problem may confront us as to whether we are prepared to continue
+all our schools for non-Christians under conditions which make it
+impossible for us to give Bible, or even any religious, training in them.
+
+Another serious problem, in this same connection, is whether missions
+should conduct, to any extent, educational work apart from other indirect
+aims and purposes. In other words, how far, if at all, should a mission
+give itself to the work of education, _per se_, and not as a Christian
+training or as an evangelizing agency.
+
+Many at present maintain that education—_general_ education—is in itself a
+good and a blessing which it is the business of a mission to impart,
+independent of any direct religious instruction or spiritual training
+which might be given through it. They maintain that mission funds should
+thus be used for the intellectual advancement of the people apart from
+their Christianization. The majority, however, would claim that a
+mission’s educational work should be conducted only so far as it can be
+the medium of communicating religious truth, or only in so far as it can
+be made a direct auxiliary to the Christianizing of the land. This class
+would claim that no work should be undertaken by a mission which does not
+contribute to the Christianizing of the people as a result distinct from
+their progress in civilization. And it is here that these two classes of
+missionaries take issue with each other. It is an important difference in
+the conception of the Church’s work in heathen lands. As I shall consider
+this later I only call attention to it here.
+
+Another matter, of no little consequence in this connection, is that of
+the amount of educational privilege which a mission should furnish to its
+people. President Stanley Hall has recently maintained that, even in this
+country, many are educated who should not be. They should, he says, be
+left to the hoe and shovel. He claims that not a few are, through
+education, spoiled for usefulness in the lowest sphere of manual labour
+for which they were by nature designed; while they are also disqualified
+for the highest sphere of service and life. If this be true in America it
+is doubly true in India. Many young men and women in that land have had
+lavished upon them the blessings of education to an extent that was
+unprofitable both to them and to the cause. They have received an
+education and training which not only carried them away far outside the
+social realm for which they were intended by nature; it also left them
+incapable of doing the higher thing for which they were intended by the
+mission.
+
+There is adequate excuse for this in the early stages of mission progress.
+The greatest need of a mission is a good, strong, native agency. And in
+its desire to furnish this agency the mission, as well as the individual
+missionary, eagerly seizes upon every boy and girl who shows any signs of
+promise as an applicant to be trained for missionary service. This same
+ambition to develop, in intellectual power and in civilizing progress, the
+young of an infant Christian community so that they may adorn our faith
+and give an honourable status to the community leads many a mission to
+expend upon the education of its boys and girls more than it will in its
+later and more mature stage of growth.
+
+6. THE INDUSTRIAL AND ECONOMIC PROBLEM.
+
+During the last two decades there has been a marked and strong tendency in
+Indian missions, as in the home churches which support them, to still
+broaden the scope of missionary effort by adding to its directly
+spiritual, and to its educational and medical, work, schemes for the
+industrial, economic and social advancement of the people. This broadening
+of the conception of the work of the Church in missionary lands is a most
+interesting study. Less than a century ago nothing that was not directly
+and intensely spiritual in its character was regarded as, in any sense, a
+part of missionary effort. To preach the Gospel to the heathen, to
+establish and to train Christian churches and to develop and direct a
+suitable native agency—this embraced the whole work of the mission.
+Anything beyond this was considered illegitimate. Subsequently the medical
+department was introduced,—chiefly because of the example of Christ
+Himself as the Great Healer. Soon the educational work was begun, as a
+necessity in its elementary stages, and it gradually grew until it has
+reached its present manifold character and large proportions. Then a few
+missions began to touch the industrial problem and to establish schools
+for the training of boys and girls in manual labour. Today that work is
+finding much increased emphasis, and missions are beginning to take up, in
+all seriousness, Peasant Settlements as a means of lifting the people
+economically, and of training them to habits of industry, and to found
+villages as separate Christian communities. Schools for the blind and for
+deaf mutes also have been established. In fact all forms of philanthropic
+effort have now practically been adopted by the missions of India as
+legitimate forms of their activities. Indeed, it is extensively
+proclaimed, what has long been strenuously denied, that missions are not
+founded simply to Christianize but to civilize and to elevate in all
+matters pertaining to soul, mind and body, the people among whom they are
+established.
+
+This is a broad question and an issue of fundamental importance. It
+belongs to the very concept of missions and is largely a question of aim
+and purpose. The trend of the times is doubtless in favour of the broader,
+humanitarian, philanthropic, civilizing purpose of missions as against the
+deeper and more exclusive, spiritual and Christianizing end.
+
+It seems to me to be a question whether missions are ready for this
+change.
+
+It is also a very serious problem whether, in the mission field, this
+modern tendency to extend and broaden out is of the spirit of Christ and
+is a passion to do good unto men in every department and sphere of their
+life; or whether it is a degeneracy—a drifting away from the lofty and
+exclusive purpose of soul-winning and soul-saving down towards the lower
+plane of earthly blessing and general philanthropy. There is certainly a
+sense in which this widening of missionary endeavour is a part of the
+broadening of the Christian life of today and is in harmony with the
+multiplication of the agencies of the Church at home for the general
+betterment of the people and for preparing them for the highest blessings
+of our faith; and as such it is both commendable and encouraging.
+
+On the other hand I know of no temptation that is pregnant with greater
+evil to missions, at the present time, than that connected with this
+multiplication of what may be called the lower activities of missions. The
+spiritual work of a mission must ever remain its principal work if it is
+to succeed in the highest sense. It is also the most difficult work. It
+bears with it, often, serious discouragement to the worker. And in times
+of discouragement it is a very easy thing for a missionary, and for a
+mission, to relax effort at this point and, as a compensation, to seek
+larger results on the lower planes of social and industrial activities and
+humanitarian and philanthropic effort. These lower forms of activity are
+exceedingly absorbing and distracting; and when a mission enters
+extensively into them it usually means, and, I would almost say,
+_necessarily_ means, a withdrawal of time and energy and of interest from
+its highest spiritual work. A man or a mission has only a certain amount
+of strength and money to devote to his work; and if this is increasingly
+and extensively expended upon the lower forms of philanthropic effort, the
+higher, spiritual purposes and endeavors must suffer.
+
+The Basle Lutheran Mission of South India has done more industrial work
+than any other mission of that land. But the industrial department grew so
+rapidly and became so absorbing that it was found necessary to make a
+separate “mission” of it. It has flourished as a commercial enterprise and
+is self-supporting. But the leader of that mission informs me that its
+blessings are questionable, in that it tends to demoralize the people and
+renders little or no aid to their spiritual work.
+
+While I believe that a certain amount of endeavour, by a mission, for the
+temporal good and social betterment of its people is legitimate and
+desirable, extreme care should be taken, in the present early stage of
+progress, lest this form of activity become prominent or dominant; and,
+above all, lest it, in any way, interfere with the conviction concerning
+the supreme importance and prime urgency of the spiritual training and
+growth of the people. This class of work can very easily, by changing the
+people’s ideas of a mission’s aim and purpose, demoralize them. It can
+also, with equally fatal facility, transfer the interest of the missionary
+from the higher to the lower realm of work, and thus become a curse,
+rather than a blessing, to him. If the work of missions is to be broadened
+the greatest care must be exercised lest this breadth be secured at the
+expense of depth of spiritual purpose and power, and height of spiritual
+life and experience. I must confess that this new movement, in the present
+stage of the progress of missions, brings to me as much fear as it does
+hope. For, while I see reason for taking up such work, I know also the
+demoralizing influences that so naturally and easily follow it. A mission
+that allows itself to be secularized, by giving too much emphasis to these
+social and civilizing agencies, becomes inevitably paralyzed as a
+spiritual force in its field; and woe be to any mission that gains
+anything at the expense of its spiritual paralysis.
+
+7. MISSION ADMINISTRATION.
+
+The question of administration is an exceedingly important one to every
+mission. How wisely are our missions organized for large economy of money
+and effort and for highest efficiency? Could not missions unite, for
+mutual counsel and wisdom, as many officers of our societies at home now
+do; could not missions learn more from one another in this most important
+respect? The annual expenditure of more than one million dollars on
+mission work in South India alone is in itself a large trust which
+requires great care and breadth of wisdom. Hitherto not much has been done
+by the many missions of India to learn from one another the wisest methods
+of administration. There is remarkable diversity and even contrast among
+those missions in the methods of conducting their work and in the
+administration of their affairs. This is, in no small part, due to the
+different peculiarities of the several nationalities which conduct the
+missions; it is also in part due to their denominational affinities. But,
+by growing familiarity with one another’s methods and by more appreciative
+study of the same, much could be learned by these missions which would
+tend to increasing uniformity of administrative method, efficiency of work
+and abundance of results.
+
+Another question of perennial interest, in this connection, is that of the
+extent to which native Christians should be allowed to participate in the
+administration of the affairs of a mission. The training of some of the
+highest members of the native Christian community in the responsibility of
+missionary administration is a serious duty of every mission. The day must
+come when the whole administration of the Christian work carried on by
+missions will be in the hands of the native community itself—when
+missions, as such, shall have accomplished their work and shall be
+disbanded. What is being done by our missions today to make that
+consummation possible and desirable at the earliest moment? Most missions
+maintain that Indians should have nothing to do with the administration of
+_foreign_ funds. Is this a wise position to take? Is it consonant with the
+best training of the highest native Christians for future control? In
+other words, what administrative preparation is being made by the mission
+for the incoming of an indigenous, self-governing Church?
+
+It is true that Indian Christians will not, for a long time, be able to
+render much assistance to the missions in this line. But if they are to
+be, at any future time, capable of undertaking the responsibility of the
+work they must be trained for it; and this training must be conducted with
+patience by the mission. If they are now wanting in independence and poise
+of character and breadth of horizon, these can come to them only through
+an extended training. And it is the duty of missions to give this training
+to them.
+
+There is danger that missions cling too tenaciously to their right to
+rule. Power is sweet to the missionary no less than to other men.
+
+I am glad to say that progress is made by missions in this matter. Slowly
+but surely the native Christian is entering into their counsels and is
+finding increasing opportunity and responsibility there.
+
+8. PROBLEMS CONCERNING NEW CONVERTS.
+
+There are many interesting and important questions connected with the
+reception of new converts into the Christian fold in India. Some of these
+have a growing interest to the Cause and have found an important place in
+missionary discussion. I shall refer to only a few of them.
+
+(_a_) _Shall polygamous converts be received into the Christian Church?_
+
+In Hinduism polygamy (more especially, bigamy) is not uncommon. It is
+permitted and indeed fostered by that faith and is legalized by the laws
+of the country. As our faith makes increasing inroads upon that religion,
+numbers, and yet never a large number, of those who have two or more wives
+will accept our teaching and, with all earnestness, seek admission into
+our Christian communion. What shall we say to such? How shall we meet them
+and their desire? This question has, in a few cases, been sent to the
+societies at home, the missions seeking from them advice and guidance.
+From America the instruction has been received against receiving any such
+into the Christian Church. This is natural enough from a country which is
+confronted by the Mormon question. But the problem has its Eastern bearing
+which is not understood in the West and which has led missionary bodies in
+India almost invariably to decide in favour of receiving such into the
+Christian fold.
+
+In the consideration of the problem many things must be kept in mind. None
+more important than the claims to a cordial welcome from the Church of any
+man who, in true faith and Christian earnestness, seeks admittance. If it
+be demanded of the man that he put away all but one of those wives taken
+in heathenism; then we ask whether it is Christian, or even just, to cast
+away one to whom he was solemnly and religiously pledged according to the
+laws of the land and with whom he has been linked in love and harmony for
+years and from whom he has begotten children? And if he is to put away one
+or more of his wives, which one shall it be? Shall it be the first wife?
+Certainly that would not be Christian. Or shall it be the second wife who
+is the mother of his children and whom he probably married at the request
+of the first, who was childless, in order that he might raise seed unto
+himself? It is not easy, on Christian grounds, to decide such a problem as
+this; nor is it very Christian to put a ban upon any woman who, in
+accordance with their religion and their country’s laws, has formed this
+sacred alliance with a man and has lived with him for years. Nor can it be
+right to brand with illegitimacy the children born of such a wedlock.
+
+I would not allow such persons, received into the Christian Church, to
+become officers of the Church. But I cannot see why there may not be an
+humble place in the Church of God for such and their families.
+
+(_b_) _Should the baptism of a person, in any case, immediately follow his
+confession of Christ?_
+
+This question does not pertain to those who live in Christian communities
+and within the circle of Christian light and influence. It refers mainly,
+if not exclusively, to those who accept Christ under the influence of
+Christian teaching at heathen festivals and who may live far away from
+Christian communities. In North India, some of those who have accepted
+Christ under these circumstances have received immediate baptism and have
+been sent back to their villages professing Christians. At first sight
+this seems unwarranted and unwise. Men who have received and made an open
+confession of Christ under these circumstances have not likely received a
+sufficient knowledge of our faith, or attained an adequate familiarity
+with its truths; nor have they been grounded in its principles and life,
+sufficiently to warrant us in the hope and assurance that they will
+continue this life in their heathen homes and do honour to our cause and
+the name of Christ which they have professed. And yet who are we to decide
+adversely upon the application of such a man who may find, or think he
+finds, in that public occasion the only opportunity of making an open
+confession of Christ? And what right have we to conclude that he will not
+stand firm to his pledge and promise if we are convinced that it is made
+in all sincerity and earnestness, and if we are convinced that the man has
+really accepted Christ as his Saviour? Or, more properly, what ground have
+we to believe that the Holy Spirit cannot carry on to perfection the work
+thus begun by Him in the heart of such a man? And was not this method of
+immediate baptism that of the Apostolic Church, even though many thus
+baptized subsequently denied their new faith?
+
+There are, doubtless, cases of this kind where baptism cannot be refused
+by the minister of God—where it is even imperative and may prove a
+blessing to the heathen audience as well as to the new convert. And yet,
+the ordinary method of delay and careful scrutiny and training should
+still be adhered to as a normal method of the Church in heathen lands. It
+is the safest way to lead to a healthy and a strong Church.
+
+(_c_) _Another question frequently asked is that concerning secret
+baptism._
+
+Shall a missionary, at any time and under any circumstances, secretly
+baptize such as are anxious to make confession of Christ, but are debarred
+by family opposition, or by similar causes, from public baptism? This
+problem frequently arises in connection with work for heathen women. Under
+the influence of the work of a Bible woman, or a lady missionary, a woman
+may abjure her faith, accept Christ as her Saviour and yearn for baptism.
+But to be baptized publicly and to confess Christ before her people openly
+would inevitably result in her being driven from home, separated from her
+children and people, and robbed of all opportunity to influence them in
+behalf of her newly found faith. Moreover, by this public confession she
+is deprived of all family support and becomes a helpless dependent upon
+the mission for her daily bread. The question rises whether such a woman
+should be quietly baptized and thus left to pursue her way in her own home
+and with her family as a pledged, but secret, follower of the Lord. There
+is much to be said in favour of, as there is against, such a baptism. Many
+contend that such an acceptance of Christ would be unworthy and would be
+robbed of its saving power. But such are not conversant with Hindu life
+and some of its terrible conditions. Some would maintain, perhaps with
+more wisdom, that it would be better not to baptize such, but to encourage
+them to believe that they are accepted of Christ and to treat them in
+every way as Christ’s own disciples.
+
+Another problem in this connection is as to the right or wisdom of an
+unordained lady missionary to administer this initiatory rite to such
+women converts. This question, of course, will be largely decided in
+accordance with the ecclesiastical connection of those who consider it.
+There is a growing number of persons who believe that it would be well
+that ladies be authorized to administer this rite under such
+circumstances.
+
+9. Another problem is connected with the revival of thought among the
+people of India whom we seek to bring to Christ.
+
+This revival is really the result of western influence—largely the product
+of Christian teaching and activity in that land. In its last analysis it
+is therefore not to be deplored, but rather to be welcomed. At the same
+time this new awakening seems to be, for the present, connected with a
+reactionary and a militant spirit. It speaks in the interest of a new
+nationalism and a false patriotism which extols everything Eastern simply
+because it _is_ Oriental. Its aggressiveness is manifest even in America.
+We are becoming familiar, in this country, with the yellow-robed Hindu
+monk who has probably been trained in a Christian mission college and who
+talks Hinduism with a strong Christian accent. Though he has violated a
+peremptory command of his ancestral faith in crossing the seas; and
+though, of necessity, he daily tramples in this land the whole decalogue
+of Hindu life and ritual, he feels competent to champion Hindu philosophy
+here! And he seems to find a coterie of admirers and quasi disciples in
+this land of light and privilege! Recently an old classmate of mine
+informed me, with all solemnity, that Eastern thought is now invading the
+West; and that he himself had become a theosophist! I have, since hearing
+this statement, travelled considerably over this country and confess that
+his statement does not seem so absurd as at first I thought. For, I have
+seen the recent phenomenal spread of Christian Science and of other
+vagaries with which we are too familiar in this land. What is Christian
+Science but the subtle, evasive idealism of India unequally yoked to a
+form of Christian truth and ritual. What is theosophy, but the stupefying
+philosophy and the benumbing metaphysics of the East, clothed in its own
+garb of Oriental mysticism and senseless, spurious occultism. It is a sad
+reflection upon our Western life that so many people who fail to find rest
+in the divinely inspiring teachings of Christ, sink into the depths of a
+credulity which will accept the inanities of Madame Blavatsky and the wild
+assumptions of Mrs. Eddy. Let these people go out to India and live there
+for years to see how Hindu thought and teachings have, for three
+millenniums, worked out their legitimate results in the life of the
+teeming millions of that land. Let them observe the debasing immorality,
+the hollow ceremonialism, the all-pervasive ignorance and superstition
+which rest, like a mighty pall, upon that people and which make life mean
+and render noble manhood impossible. The situation in India reminds one of
+the legendary house built upon the banks of Newfoundland. The foundation
+was completed when a dense fog swept over the place and rested upon all.
+After the superstructure was built and finished the fog lifted and it was
+found, alas, that the building was erected some two hundred yards away
+from the foundation, and rested upon nothing! Whatever one may say about
+Hindu thought and philosophy as a basis of conduct, that people have been
+living for many centuries in the dense fog of ignorance, superstition and
+ceremonialism; and their life has been unworthy and debased because it
+rested upon nothing.
+
+                   [Illustration: A Brahman Gentleman.]
+
+                    [Illustration: Swami Vivekananda.]
+
+But there is another form of this awakened Eastern thought which invites
+our attention and which concerns the missionary work not a little. It
+appears there in a reactionary form among men of culture and leads many of
+them to turn away in hearty disapproval from our faith. They are
+wonderfully drawn towards Christ, our Lord. His praises are in their
+mouths, and they eagerly study his example and life. They claim him as one
+of the East and, therefore, as one of themselves. But these same men will
+have none of Christianity, because it is, as they say, of the West,
+Western. One of their number recently wrote an article under the following
+caption:—“Why do We Hindus Accept Christ and Reject Christianity?” He
+claims that they reject our faith because it is “not Christianity but
+Churchianity”; that is, it savours of the Western Church more than it does
+of Christ. There is a great deal that is false and foolish in this
+contention; and yet it has an element of truth in it. We, of the West,
+have not realized, perhaps we never can fully realize, the great width of
+the gulf which, in thought and life, separates the Occident from the
+Orient. Hence we have in part failed in the duty of adapting our faith, in
+thought and ritual, to the taste and inherited bias of that people. We
+forget that they and we usually approach things temporal and spiritual
+from opposite sides. They are deeply mystical and poetic, while we are
+obtrusively practical and meanly prosaic. Thus the Western colouring and
+emphasis which is given to our faith in that land can neither be
+appreciated nor approved by the educated Hindu. Even native Christians are
+bemoaning this fact. I shall never forget the eloquent appeal which the
+Hon. Kali Churn Banerjee, a leading native Christian in that land, made
+before the Bombay Missionary Conference, begging the missionaries to cease
+emphasizing, as he said, “adjectival” Christianity and to dwell more upon
+“substantive” Christianity before the people of India. It is a sad fact
+that we carry there our Western shibboleths, our antiquated controversies,
+and our sectional jealousies. Most of these are not only unintelligible in
+India; they weary the people and largely bury the essentials of our faith
+from public gaze and appreciation.
+
+The question returns to us with a new emphasis today,—How much of our
+Western Christianity can we eliminate and how much must we retain in order
+to present to that people the gospel in its simplicity and saving power?
+How much of our modern Christianity is the product of Western thought,
+interpretation and life, and how much is of the very essence of Christ’s
+message? We have yet much to learn and are to be overtaken by many
+surprises in this matter, I believe. God forbid that we should rob our
+message of one tittle of its essential truth. But may He enable us to
+discriminate more and more, and lead us to cease encumbering our gospel to
+the East with such unessential thought and ritual as are suited to us but
+not to them.
+
+I doubt whether we of the West can accomplish this—it can be _fully_ done
+only when the Christian Church in India shall have become indigenous and
+strong, and, when freed from Western influence and leadership, it shall do
+its own thinking and shape its own ritual and ceremonial on Eastern lines.
+Then indeed shall we behold that welcome and mighty movement which will
+draw completely the culture of India into the Christian Church. Then also,
+and not until then, shall we begin to see the Indian Church contributing
+her share to the Christian thought and life of the world. We, of the proud
+West, are prone to think that our type of life is all-embracing and that
+our religious thought is all-satisfying. Nothing can be more fallacious or
+more injurious than such a conceit. The East is the full complement of the
+West. In life and thought we are only an hemisphere, and we need the East
+to fill up our full-orbed beauty. The mystic piety of India will correct
+our too practical, mundane view of things. The quiet, passive virtues
+which find their perfect realization in that land we must learn from them
+to accentuate in addition to the more aggressive and positive virtues of
+the West. All this is to take place in the no distant future. The Kingdom
+of Christ in the East is to reach out its hand to the West and both, in
+mutual helpfulness, will coöperate in bringing this whole world to Christ.
+Then shall we see a universal kingdom and the beginning of the fulfillment
+of the blessed vision in which “the kingdoms of this world have become the
+kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and He shall reign forever and
+ever.” God hasten the day.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                Chapter X.
+
+
+MISSIONARY RESULTS.
+
+
+We are occasionally compelled to read and to hear detailed and emphatic
+statements about “the failure of missions.” An increasing number of our
+countrymen spend their vacation days in hurried trips through mission
+fields. They are so impressed by glimpses of the strange life and
+institutions of the Orient that they have neither time nor inclination to
+study and appreciate the missionary work and organization which everywhere
+invites their attention. They return home absolutely ignorant of the work
+whose power, prevalence and progress they might easily have learned on
+their travels, and they are wont to hide that ignorance behind the
+emphatic assurance that “there was nothing to be seen” of missions; and
+they soon convince themselves, and not a few others, that what they did
+not see was not worth seeing or was, perchance, non-existent. I have long
+lived on one of the great lines of travel in India and have sorrowed over
+the fact that hardly one in ten of our travelling countrymen (and many of
+them members of our home churches too) turn aside for a moment from gazing
+upon Hindu temples to study the important work which our mission is
+carrying forward in that city and district.
+
+Even the friends of missions should learn what constitutes missionary
+success.
+
+In South India there is found a mission which counts its converts only by
+the hundreds. It is known in Christian lands only through the severe
+criticisms which have been heaped upon it by some good Christian men
+because it is an educational mission.
+
+And yet I sincerely believe that that abused mission is doing a work not
+inferior to that of any other mission in India for the permanent growth
+and highest achievement of the Kingdom of God in that land. Its leavening
+influence upon Hindu thought and institutions is hardly surpassed by that
+of any other mission. In the wonderful turning of the educated classes of
+India towards Christ, and the acceptance of him as their Ideal of life,
+that mission has a position of power. Many of the native Christians of
+greatest influence, culture and character in South India trace their
+conversion or highest efficiency to the work and influence of that
+educational mission. The best educated pastor in the Madura district came
+from and was trained by that mission; as also its highest and best
+Christian teachers received their final course of training and discipline
+there.
+
+That mission is largely ignored and even despised by the too common
+statistical reckoning of results and success. And yet the illustrious name
+of Dr. Miller, the leader of that mission, will be cherished in India and
+in the world a century hence as a chief among those who were instrumental
+in bringing that great people to Christ.
+
+The mighty and unparalleled revolution which is going on in India at
+present, as a result of missionary work, is not to be tabulated in our
+statistical reports. The deepest currents of those great moral and
+spiritual forces of the India of today are not found within the realm of
+figures. They defy tabulation; and yet they bring to the keen Christian
+observer in that land more encouragement, because they have more
+significance, than all the facts and figures usually found within the
+covers of an ordinary mission report.
+
+A great deal of the discouragement and pessimism about missions today is
+born of this statistical craze.
+
+Let us therefore take a broad view of the work of our missions and study
+some of the results achieved—results which are almost entirely the harvest
+of the labours of the last century.
+
+These results are threefold.
+
+1. PRESENT MISSIONARY APPLIANCES.
+
+(_a_) Protestant missions in India have created a plant and have developed
+appliances which are not only an assurance and a prolific source of
+encouragement for the future; they are also monuments of the industry and
+wisdom of those who have passed on, and definite signs of God’s guidance
+of, and blessing to, the work.
+
+In the first place, consider the buildings and other property erected and
+owned by the missionary societies and utilized for the maintenance and
+furtherance of their work in that land.
+
+Few people realize the enormous store of wealth which is thus treasured in
+this elaborate mission plant. Nor can they appreciate the equivalent of
+this in terms of moral efficiency and spiritual power in the regeneration
+of India.
+
+The thousands of acres of land and the many thousands of substantial
+edifices erected and dedicated to the cause of Christ in connection with
+these missions represent an investment of at least ten million dollars;
+and this money not only represents the generosity of Christians in the
+West, it also includes the self-denying offerings of Indian Christians,
+who from their poverty have given liberally to build up the cause which is
+dear to their hearts.
+
+Mission educational institutions are housed in a legion of substantial and
+beautiful buildings ranging, from the massive imposing structures of the
+Madras Christian College, downward; churches there are of all sizes and
+architectural design, from the magnificent and beautiful stone edifice
+which accommodates its thousands and which was erected by the Church
+Missionary Society in Megnanapuram, Tinnevelly, down to the unpretentious
+prayer-house of a small village congregation. A host of suitable buildings
+for hospitals, presses and publishing houses, residences for missionaries
+and native agents, school dormitories, gymnasia and lecture halls; Y. M.
+C. A. and other societies’ buildings—all these represent that power for
+service, incarnate in brick and mortar, which is invaluable and even
+indispensable to the great missionary enterprise in that land.
+
+(_b_) Nor must we overlook or fail to estimate adequately the results
+achieved in the form of a Christian literature. Though our Protestant
+missions have not cultivated, as extensively as they should, the press and
+the publishing house as a missionary agency, they have not been insensible
+to their power and have utilized extensively the printed page.
+
+In the first place a translated and a well-circulated Bible has been the
+aim and pride of our missions from the beginning. The humblest native of
+that land can find, in his own vernacular, the Word of God, and read for
+himself the message of God in Christ Jesus to his sin-burdened soul. Who
+can realize the work involved in all this, or the achievement which it
+represents?
+
+Then the Christian hymnology of India is already a rapidly growing power.
+Every important vernacular has one or more Protestant Christian hymn
+books, which reveal to what a large extent our faith has inspired and made
+vocal the praises of Zion in that land. Nearly all of these Christian
+hymns in South India and many in North India are the compositions of
+native Christians and manifest considerable poetic power and high
+sentiment. Though many of them are worthy of translation, only two have
+thus far found place in our American hymn books. One is a Tamil hymn
+composed by Yesuthasan, catechist, and translated as below by Rev. E.
+Webb,—
+
+1. Whither with this crushing load
+Over Salem’s dismal road,
+All thy body suffering so,
+O, my God where dost thou go?
+
+CHORUS:—
+
+Whither Jesus goest thou,
+Son of God what doest thou,
+On this City’s dolorous way,
+With that cross, O, Sufferer say?
+
+2. Tell me fainting, dying Lord,
+Dost thou of Thine own accord
+Bear that cross, or did thy foes
+’Gainst thy will, that load impose.—CHO.
+
+3. Patient Sufferer how can I
+See thee faint and fall and die,
+Pressed and peeled and crushed and ground
+By that cross upon thee bound?—CHO.
+
+4. Weary arm and staggering limb,
+Visage marred, eyes growing dim,
+Tongue all parched, faint at heart,
+Bruised and sore in every part!—CHO.
+
+5. Dost thou up to Calvary go,
+On that cross in shame and woe,
+Malefactors either side
+To be nailed and crucified?—CHO.
+
+6. Is it demon thrones to shake,
+Death to kill, sin’s power to break,
+All our ills to put away,
+Life to give and endless day?—CHO.
+
+Besides this there is an ever-growing mass of Christian literature in all
+the vernaculars used by our missions; and this is becoming increasingly
+available as a power for the uplifting of the people who are, in growing
+numbers, learning to read. Beyond almost every other appliance for the
+Christianization of that people there stand high in usefulness and
+pervasive influence these books, tracts and magazines of the missions; and
+the aid which they furnish to all Christian workers in that land is beyond
+computation. Missionaries may go and come, and mission policy may change,
+but this Christian literature will quietly and mightily work out its own
+benign results throughout the land, enlightening the people and appealing
+to the best that is in them.
+
+(_c_) In like manner the missionary educational institutions, which cover
+the whole land as a great network, are a noble product of missionary
+ideals and efforts in the land. They are in themselves an achievement
+which not only has cost millions of rupees for its creation and
+maintenance, but is also the product of some of the best thought and
+highest wisdom of many choice spirits during the last century. These
+schools constantly furnish to the Christian Church in India, for
+intellectual upbuilding, for moral guidance and for spiritual
+regeneration, nearly a half million of the brightest youths of the land.
+These institutions are the product of a century of endeavour; and it can
+be truly said that without them the Protestant mission of India would be
+shorn of much of their power and more of their promise.
+
+In the present organized activity of missions there stands nothing in
+higher esteem than these institutions for what they have done in the life
+both of non-Christians and of Christians alike.
+
+(_d_) In connection with missionary activity in that land one of the most
+encouraging, as it is also the most monumental, of results, is the large
+army of well-educated and thoroughly equipped men and women who have been
+taken from among the people and have been trained and placed as their
+leaders and guides.
+
+Perhaps 20,000 such (there are 10,550 in South India alone) are at present
+giving all their time and strength to the spiritual training of the
+Christian community, to preaching to non-Christians and to the instruction
+of the young in the schools.
+
+India is to be brought to Christ and his religion, not through the efforts
+of the foreigner, so much as through the life and activity of men and
+women of the soil. They are to be the essential factor in the future
+prevalence and in the character of our faith in India. Therefore it stirs
+one to deepest emotion to behold this mighty army of native workers, who
+are praying and working daily in that land for the conversion of their own
+people and for the upbuilding of the Christian community in all that is
+characteristic of our faith. As I have been permitted, for years, to train
+and to send forth into that great harvest field young men to preach the
+gospel of Christ and to guide the churches and congregations into
+spiritual truth and life, I have felt that it was the highest and best
+opportunity that could be granted to any missionary worker in that land.
+This work of training an adequate spiritual agency is occupying the
+serious thought of all missions. There are 110 theological seminaries and
+normal training schools in the country; in these, 4,305 students, of both
+sexes, are undergoing training.
+
+Many of the agents now employed are men and women qualified to clearly
+expound the truths of our faith to believers and unbelievers. They are
+well fortified against attack as rational defenders of Christianity and
+are prepared to remove doubts which may arise in the minds of sincere
+inquirers and wavering believers. Not all of them are such as we could
+wish in intellectual equipment or in strength of character. But the
+poorest of them are gradually being replaced by better ones; and the
+intellectual, moral and spiritual tone of the whole force is constantly
+improving. The ordained native clergy are a body of men who are rapidly
+growing in efficiency and power. There are 406 of them in South India
+alone—nearly as many as there are ordained missionaries in the same area.
+
+A comparison, in South India, between this force of 406 native pastors and
+the 585 native priests of the Romish Church shows how well, relatively,
+the Protestant Church of South India is supplied; there being one native
+pastor to every 1,500 of the Protestant community, while the Romish
+priests are only one to every 2,000 of their community.
+
+Some of these pastors are university graduates, and all are men of good
+professional training. They are faithful workers and are increasingly
+worthy, and enjoy the confidence, of their missionary associates. Among
+the native agents of our Protestant missions in South India alone there
+are about 100 university graduates, 200 First in Arts (the degree granted
+after two years of college work) and 600 university matriculates. This
+thorough utilization of a strong, cultured, native agency is one of the
+most striking results of the last century’s work in that land. And it is
+the more remarkable in the case of the women, since a generation ago
+hardly any of the weaker sex were in mission employ, while today the
+missions of South India alone employ 3,000 of them. It is practically the
+creation of a mighty and most faithful and devoted agency in one
+generation.
+
+What may we not expect from this great army of native brethren and
+sisters, as they shall continue to grow in numbers and in general
+equipment, and as they shall be filled with the Spirit of God and be fully
+used by our Lord in the redemption of their own people!
+
+2. THE NATIVE CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY.
+
+Recent statistics give the total number of Christians in British India as
+2,923,349. This is a growth of about 640,000 in ten years, four times more
+than the rate of growth of the whole population. And yet there are people
+who tell us that the kingdom of our Lord is not coming in that land!
+
+CENSUS OF CHRISTIANS IN INDIA, MAY 2, 1901.(12)
+
+Total of all denominations   2,923,349
+European and other races       258,990
+Natives                      2,664,359
+
+_Total Returned._ _Natives._
+
+Anglican                              453,612     305,907
+Baptist                               220,863     216,743
+Congregationalist                      37,876      37,313
+Lutheran and allied denominations     155,455     153,768
+Methodist                              76,869      68,451
+Presbyterian                           53,829      42,799
+Friends                                 1,309       1,275
+Roman Catholic                      1,202,039   1,122,378
+Salvationist                           18,960      18,847
+Syrian                                571,327     571,320
+Scattering                            131,210     125,558
+
+Of the above number of Christians 2,664,359 are natives of India. This is
+an increase of over 630,000, or about thirty-one per cent, of Indian
+Christians during the last decade. And during this time the general
+population of India has increased only about two and one-half per cent.!
+Analyzing this aggregate of all Christians we find that 970,000 of them
+are native Protestant Christians. This represents an advance of sixty-four
+per cent, during the last ten years in that community; while the Romish
+and Syrian native Christian communities have gained hardly three per cent,
+in the same time. Thus it will be seen that the rapid progress of our
+faith in that land of the East depends almost entirely upon the remarkable
+advance of Protestantism among the people of India. This is certainly a
+result most encouraging to Protestant Christian workers in that land. That
+this decade’s growth is not abnormal is attested by the fact that the
+native Protestant Christians of India are more than ten times what they
+were fifty years ago.
+
+In view of the fact that the whole Christian community of India is only
+one per cent, of the total population, one may be inclined to feel
+discouraged. And yet if the relative growth of the whole population and,
+say, of the Protestant Christian community for the last decade be
+maintained for one hundred and thirty years more, the whole population
+will be found Christian of the Protestant type.
+
+These figures indicate the magnificent development of our work in that
+land. And when we remember the splendid equipment and wonderful modern
+appliances of the missionary organizations of today we can easily believe
+that, even within another century, Christianity will become the prevailing
+faith of India.
+
+A large number, in our Christian community, has been gathered through mass
+movements, where certain castes and classes have, in large bodies, sought
+the blessings of our faith. In Tinnevelly, for instance, the Shanar caste
+was early influenced by Christian workers; and, as they are a very
+clannish community, many thousands of them have embraced the Christian
+faith and have been wonderfully transformed and elevated through their
+contact with it.
+
+One of the most marvellous manifestations of the power of the Gospel is
+presented today in that district by this people, who, under missionary
+influence and Christian training, have risen from great depths of
+ignorance and social degradation until they stand among the highest of
+that land in intelligence and in the spirit of progress. Most of the
+Christians of Tinnevelly belong to this once despised class and are, in
+many respects, full of vigour and enterprise.
+
+In the famous Telegu Baptist Mission we find a similar movement. That
+American Mission laboured for twenty-five years without much
+encouragement. After those years the outcastes of the community began to
+appreciate the advantages of our faith and to apply for admission into its
+congregations. It gathered them in by thousands until it has become by far
+the largest mission in the country. It represents nearly one quarter of
+the whole Protestant Christian community of India.
+
+During the last few years a similar movement has overtaken the American
+Methodist, and other missions in North India. Many thousands of the
+depressed classes, within its area, have sought a refuge from their ills
+and a Saviour for their souls in the Christian fold; so that it taxes all
+the energies and resources of the mission to keep pace with the movement
+and to instruct adequately, in Christian truth, these ignorant masses who
+flock unto it. Bishop Thoburn says that more than 100,000 of this class
+are now waiting to be received into their community; but that their
+mission has not the men or means to instruct them.
+
+In other missions, also, reports are being received of similar movements
+now going forward on a smaller scale. Some missionaries of these fields
+have written to me stating that the only limit to the growth and
+development of their missions is that of men and money wherewith to
+instruct and properly direct the people who come seeking for light and
+help.(13)
+
+In the great majority of missions, however, growth has been general and
+normal; people have come as individuals and as families, separating
+themselves, after much thought and prayer, from those who are dearest to
+them upon earth, and passing through a sea of tribulation and persecution
+into the Christian life.
+
+It has been claimed by Hindus, and by some others, that Hinduism is a
+tolerant faith—that it does not resort to persecution. In one respect this
+is true. As we have before seen, it will permit its members to hold any
+doctrine and to accept any teaching that they please. It has no punishment
+nor even a voice of disapprobation to its member who is a rationalist, an
+atheist, or a Christian so far as acceptance of such belief or non-belief
+is concerned. And, so far as conduct is concerned, a man may be a
+libertine, a robber or a murderer, and yet maintain his religious status.
+But when it comes to the violation of caste rules it is very different.
+Hinduism will tolerate anything but caste insubordination. So that when a
+man, in becoming a Christian, severs his connection with his caste and
+becomes, socially, an alien to his people, then Hinduism steps in and
+brings to bear upon him all the bitter penalties of caste infliction, and
+persecutes him in a thousand social ways such as make life a burden unto
+him. The engine of caste is the most complete and mighty instrument of
+religious persecution the world has known, as many thousands of our native
+Christians have learned to their bitter cost.
+
+When a man decides to become a Christian there is very little opposition
+to this purpose among his people so long as his decision involves only his
+belief, conviction and private devotion and prayer. But when it leads him
+to a public confession of Christ and to baptism, which is regarded as his
+renunciation of caste rules, affinities and obligations, then all the
+spite of caste tyranny is showered upon him. He is boycotted thoroughly.
+None of his caste people, not even his own Hindu family, will eat with
+him. The family and caste washerman is no longer permitted to serve him;
+their barber will not shave him, and the blacksmith, carpenter, mason and
+other village servants decline to render him their wonted service. So that
+he is absolutely helpless. It requires a very strong man to face all this
+kind of annoyance and deprivation, and to stand firm in the new life upon
+which he has entered and continue loyal to the new faith which he has
+embraced.
+
+It must be admitted that such rigours of persecution are not carried out
+in all cases at present. Though this is the spirit and method of caste,
+yet the influence of home ties and family affection and the social
+position and influence of a new convert may be such as to mitigate this
+public opposition to his Christian decision. But the engine of persecution
+is there, always ready for use.
+
+The question has often been asked as to the motives which animated those
+of our Christian community who denied their ancestral faith in order to
+become Christians. In this land many have an idea, in some cases expressed
+but in many unexpressed, that most of the Christian converts in India are
+what are denominated “rice Christians.” This charge against the adherents
+of our faith in that land is as unworthy as it is untrue. That some
+embrace our religion and take upon them the name of Christ from unworthy
+motives we know—perhaps this is a thing not confined to India. But it has
+always been a surprise to me, not that so many, but that so few, join our
+missions from worldly or unworthy motives. For they soon learn that the
+missionary of their district is a friend of the poor and the oppressed;
+and they are constantly suffering from the injustice and the rapacity of
+Brahmans and of other members of their own faith who are above them.
+Outside of slavery there are few people who are subject to grosser
+injustice at the hand of men of wealth and of power than are the poor,
+down-trodden people of India.
+
+Most of them are also groaning in the deepest pit of poverty. Poverty is a
+relative term. As compared with India, America knows absolutely no
+poverty. The poverty of India is crushing, over-whelming. When we remember
+that according to government statistics, the average income of a man for
+the support of his family in India is less than $1.50 a month we get a
+glimpse of what abject poverty means.
+
+And when we further remember that, during many months and seasons of his
+life, even this is partly denied him, owing to frequent droughts and other
+unpreventable evils, we know in part how an unsatisfied craving, and
+pinching distress overwhelm a large proportion of that population.
+Government statistics show that one-fifth of the population are in a
+chronic state of hunger.
+
+And yet I heartily bear testimony that comparatively few of our people
+have become Christians in order that they might receive physical and
+temporal blessings. We dare not say that this motive does not exist; but
+we are confident that in three-fourths of our converts it is not the
+prevailing or the dominant motive. There is a soul-hungering and a
+heart-thirsting in India such as are not in any way satisfied by their
+ancestral faith. And Christianity appeals to the people increasingly as a
+soul-satisfier and as a power of God unto salvation; and they more and
+more realize this fact and are impelled more by that motive than by any
+other in transferring their allegiance from Krishna to Christ.
+
+And even when some do come with prevailingly low and sordid motives and
+seek to be enrolled as members of the Christian community, we dare not
+discourage or deny them; because we hope soon, after they have united with
+our community and have placed themselves under Christian instruction, to
+impart to them loftier conceptions of life and of truth. And even should
+we fail to reform them and to give them worthy views of our religion and
+of their relationship to it, we entertain the hope that their children
+will become worthy and genuine Christians. Many of the best and most
+honoured members of our community, today, are the children and
+grandchildren of very unsatisfactory Christians of the past.
+
+I might say here that missionaries are being frightened less and less by
+the charges so frequently made, by those who know the situation least,
+concerning the unworthy motives of those who become Christians. Indeed, to
+be frank, the question of motives is, in my opinion, one of very little
+consequence, save as it may involve down-right hypocrisy or gross
+deception.
+
+Ordinarily we do not expect, from a people who have been brought up in so
+selfish and so debasing and sordid an atmosphere as that of the common
+Hindu of today, a highly spiritual, or a purely ethical motive in becoming
+Christians. If such be the prevailing motive, or even if we are convinced
+that it is not absent, we are satisfied. Nor can there be anything wrong
+if a man in India seeks alliance with Christianity in order to better his
+earthly circumstances. This may mean a purpose to secure an education and
+the blessings of civilization and culture for his children; or it may
+reveal a desire for relief from injustice, or protection from gross
+tyranny; it may signify merely a vague hope that, by becoming a Christian,
+the general circumstances both of himself and family will be improved.
+There is nothing intrinsically evil in any of these ambitions nor in
+seeking Christian affiliation largely with a view to obtaining these,
+provided always that there is also a conviction of the moral and spiritual
+excellence of our faith and of its ability to satisfy the soul’s need. And
+this we may generally assume in a man who voluntarily severs his
+connection with the faith of his ancestors, and from a religion which was
+a part of his own deepest life.
+
+Nor should the deep ignorance of many of those who become Christians lead
+us hastily to conclude that, because they know so little about our faith,
+they therefore are unable to appreciate or enjoy any of its spiritual
+blessings. I have often been surprised to see how many very ignorant
+Christians, and those who greatly try our patience at times, both by their
+stupidity and their crooked lives, nevertheless often reveal beautiful
+touches of a genuine faith and of a most direct and simple trust; and they
+stand nobly firm under the most trying and worrying persecution which
+Hinduism knows too well how to inflict upon those who desert and deny it.
+
+It has often been charged, with a view to discredit missionary effort in
+India, that the converts gathered into the Christian fold have been from
+the lowest social stratum, and not from the higher and ruling classes of
+society. Even if this charge were entirely true, I can see in it nothing
+reflecting upon the success of our cause in that land.
+
+It has, indeed, in all ages and lands, been the normal process of
+Christian conquest, to gather in the lower classes first. It is not by
+filtering downward but by leavening upward that Christianity has been wont
+to enter and to transform nations. As this was the initial method in
+apostolic days, so has it continued through all the history of the Church.
+It has been by the weak and despised things of the world that our Lord has
+brought to nought and then won the mighty. It is so in India. Perhaps
+three-fourths of the native Christians of that land are from the non-Aryan
+community—from the aboriginal classes over whom the sway of Hinduism is
+less complete than it is over the Aryan races. This is doubtless one
+reason why two-thirds of all the Christians of India are found in Southern
+India—among the Dravidians, who, as we have seen, are more the children of
+Demonolatry than they are of Brahmanism. And yet, let it not be supposed
+that the Turanians of the South are far inferior to the Aryans of the
+North; or that the salvation of the so-called “aborigines” of India, of
+whom there are more than sixty millions, is unworthy of our highest
+ambition.
+
+Neither let it be thought that Christianity has not made glorious inroad
+upon the middle classes and even upon the highest class in that land—the
+Brahmans. It is true that, thus far, not very many of that high and
+haughty caste have openly professed Christ. It is equally true, however,
+that some of the best members of our Christian community are converted
+Brahmans. The Indian Christian community is proud of such men as the Hon.
+Kali Churn Bannerjee, Dr. K. M. Bannerjee, Rev. K. C. Chatterjee, Rae Maya
+Das and the Hon. N. Subramanien, not because they were Brahmans, but
+because they have consecrated to the Lord all their distinguished ability,
+and because they excel in their possession of Christian graces.
+
+These names, and many others like them, reveal the growing power that our
+faith is wielding over men of position in that land. At the coronation of
+King Edward, in London, twenty representatives of the Indian Christian
+Church were present. Of these, six are ruling princes; perhaps the most
+distinguished of them is Sir Harnam Singh Ahluwalia, K. C. I. E. He is a
+man of culture—“a true representative of educated India.”
+
+He was entrusted by the Indian Christians to convey their address to the
+king upon the occasion of his coronation. Sir Harnam Singh’s usefulness
+and success largely depend upon the support, which he receives, in all
+good things, from his wife, Lady Singh, who is the daughter of Rev. Golak
+Nath.
+
+The devout Henry Martyn, nearly a century ago, with mingled discouragement
+and yearning, declared that to see one Hindu a real believer in Jesus
+would be something more nearly approaching the resurrection of a dead body
+than anything he had yet seen. The illustrious Jesuit missionary, the Abbe
+Du Bois, mourned that, even after a long period of faithful work, he
+believed he had seen no genuine convert to Christianity in that land. How
+would those two great friends of India rejoice today were they to see the
+glorious harvest which Christianity has been permitted to gather during
+the last century from that great people! And among the best of them are to
+be seen not a few representatives of the haughty Brahman caste and also
+members of the crushed and despised outcaste Pariah community.
+
+It is well to remember that it has been the ambition of missionaries in
+India, not so much to gather in numerous accessions from the social and
+intellectual aristocracy of the land, as to create out of the Indian
+Christian community, however degraded may have been its origin, an
+aristocracy of character and of true culture. And in this they have
+achieved remarkable success. For the native Christian community is being
+most rapidly transformed in these respects. Remember, please, the
+condition, previous to their embracing our faith, of those outcaste people
+who now constitute three-fourths of the Christian community. They were not
+only socially ostracized, and therefore wanting in all traits of manly
+assertion, of independence and of self-respect. They were also in deepest
+ignorance. Not five per cent, of them could either read or write. Moreover
+they were under serious religious disability. Though nominal Hindus, they
+had no right to enter purely Hindu temples nor to approach in worship any
+strictly Hindu deity. The most sacred of Hindu religious books were denied
+them, and the most cherished of Hindu rites and ceremonies they were
+deemed totally unfit to observe.
+
+All that they could claim was permission to appease the demons of their
+ancestral worship. I have seen these outcastes, who, while absorbed into
+Hinduism, nevertheless live constantly under its ban. They erect fine
+halls and shrines in Brahmanical temples, but are not permitted to enter
+them after the day of their dedication to Hindu worship. Hinduism has
+never declined any pecuniary offerings from these despised ones; and yet
+it has never deemed it its province or duty to impart its religious
+blessings to them. It has denied to them instruction, comfort and
+salvation. Is it a wonder that most of the people were almost on a level
+with brutes so far as thoughts of the highest interests of the soul are
+concerned? These are the people whom Christianity has delighted to rescue
+from their thralldom and to build up in religious thought, ambition and
+spiritual blessings.
+
+It has applied itself to the task of raising them from their low estate.
+It has erected buildings for their instruction. In most cases its
+prayer-houses have been daily used as schoolhouses where the young have
+been instructed; so that today this community stands distinguished among
+the other communities in the land for its intelligence.
+
+For example, the total number of Christian youth in mission schools in
+South India is 62,000—two-thirds of them being boys and one-third girls,
+which represents a percentage to the total of school-going-age of 68.7 for
+boys and 33.7 for girls; and this while, in the general community, only
+twelve per cent, of those who are of an age to be at school are attending
+school. Among the Brahmans only is literacy more common than among Indian
+Christians. And even that caste, which has for thirty centuries
+represented the cultured aristocracy of India, must look to its laurels;
+for, though their males are preëminent in culture, the females are as
+illiterate as any class in India, only six in 1,000 being able to read. In
+the Christian community, on the other hand, the women are not far behind
+the men in the race for culture. It is therefore not difficult to prophesy
+that the day is not far off when the Indian Christians, among whom both
+sexes find equal opportunity and inducement to study in the schools, will
+outstrip the Brahmans and stand preëminent as the educated and cultured
+class of India.
+
+This is as true in the higher as in the lower grades of education. There
+are today living 418 native Christian graduates of the Madras University.
+Last year twenty-seven of these Christian youth received the B. A. degree
+in that Presidency alone, and the only three Indian ladies who have seized
+the difficult and much coveted prize of Master of Arts from that
+University are Christians. These facts are significant and reveal the
+marvellous progress made by this once despised community.
+
+As to the character of these Christians the testimony of Sir Alexander
+Mackensie, a distinguished Anglo Indian statesman of large experience, may
+be of interest:—“The advance made (in missions) during my time,” he says,
+“have been substantial and encouraging, and it is my firm belief that the
+day-spring of still better things is very close at hand, while the simple
+faith and godly lives of many native Christians, might put all, or most of
+us certainly, to the blush.”
+
+It may be well to add emphasis here to the position of woman in the native
+Christian community as a direct result of mission endeavour in that land.
+
+The new womanhood of the infant native Christian community has begun to
+impress itself upon the land. There are nearly five hundred thousand women
+and girls connected with the Protestant missions of that country today.
+They are being trained for, and introduced to, new spheres and
+opportunities such as the women of India never dreamed of before.
+Thousands of them are engaged as teachers and as Bible women. Some
+practice medicine; others adorn and cheer the homes, beautify the lives
+and strengthen the work of pastors and preachers, of teachers, doctors and
+other professional men. They grow into the full bloom of womanhood before
+they leave their school training; and they go forth well equipped
+intellectually, morally and spiritually for the manifold duties of life.
+
+The last few years have not only helped the Christian women of the land,
+as a class, they have also brought into distinction many of them who are
+worthy to stand among the eminent women of the age and world.
+
+The first of these, both on account of the remarkable career which she has
+led and of the noble work which she is performing, is the well-known
+Pundita Ramabai. Herself a Brahman widow, who lost her father in the
+tender years of childhood and who subsequently entered into the joys and
+blessed power of a Christian life, she dedicated herself to the work of
+redeeming her unfortunate Hindu sisters from their sad lot. To this noble
+work of philanthropy and of heroic Christian service she has given herself
+absolutely; and through distinguished administrative skill and a
+triumphant faith she has achieved marvellous success. Beside her
+well-known institution for child-widows at Poonah—the Sharada Sadan, which
+the writer visited and greatly admired—the recent famine inspired her to a
+new effort to save the waifs and orphans of that region. So that, today,
+she has under her care more than two thousand of the unfortunate ones of
+her own sex whom she is not only protecting and wisely training for worthy
+positions in life, but is also bringing forward into the joys of a true
+Christian life. Few women, in any land, have found a more useful, or more
+honourable, career than this noble woman of the East. She combines, in a
+rare degree, large capacity for work, the highest sanity in her methods
+and the deepest love for those whom she has given her life to bless.
+
+The Sorabjis, also of Western India, have achieved distinction beyond most
+native Christian families. Mr. Sorabji was one of the few Parsees who have
+embraced Christianity. One of the daughters of the family, the widow of an
+Englishman, lives in London and has delighted the Queen by her exquisite
+rendering of Persian songs. One sister is an artist, whose paintings are
+exhibited in Paris and London. One is a surgeon of distinction. It was
+another daughter of this family who was the only representative of her sex
+from the Orient at the Parliament of Religions in Chicago. The most
+distinguished of these seven sisters is Cornelia Sorabji, the barrister.
+Her graduating paper on “Roman Law,” at Oxford, was classed among the best
+papers produced by the pupils of that famous institution. She is the first
+lady barrister of India, and is not only a powerful advocate, but also a
+brilliant writer, as her book and her articles on the woman question in
+“The Nineteenth Century” amply testify.
+
+Toru Dutt, of Calcutta, one of the brilliant young stars of India, was
+versed in French, German and English. At twenty-one she published “A Sheaf
+Gleaned in French Fields.” It is a skillful and able English translation
+of the works of famous French authors. She and her sister, Aru, were
+remarkably talented. It is sad that she, who was so full of intellectual
+brightness and so beautiful in Christian life, should have been taken away
+by death in the bloom of life.
+
+Miss Goreh is the only Indian Christian who has thus far added to our
+popular English hymnology. Her beautiful hymn:
+
+“In the secret of His presence how my soul delights to hide;
+Oh, how precious are the moments which I spend at Jesus’ side.
+Earthly cares can never reach me, neither trials bring me low;
+For when Satan comes to tempt me to the Secret Place I go,”—
+
+has been a blessing to many in this land of ours.
+
+Mrs. Sattianathan of Madras (the wife of a distinguished Indian Christian)
+was another bright young woman who showed marked evidence of talent as an
+English writer. Her books, descriptive of the life both of Hindu and of
+Indian Christian women, have had deservedly large popularity. They created
+in many of her friends a hope for even greater results from her. But,
+alas, these hopes were soon shattered by her sad and premature death.
+
+The second Mrs. Sattianathan, herself an M. A. of the Madras University,
+has entered upon a brilliant career as a writer, and has established the
+first English monthly magazine for her Indian sisters—a magazine which is
+full of attractiveness and promise.
+
+These ladies are only a few of those who illustrate the ability, devotion,
+beauty and promise of the women of India. Such are preëminently the hope
+of that country.
+
+It was while looking upon one of these Indian Christian ladies that the
+late Benjamin Harrison, Ex-President of the United States, remarked that
+if he had spent a million dollars for missions and had seen, as a result
+of his offering, only one such convert as Miss Singh he would still have
+considered his offering a most profitable investment.
+
+These women are creating their own opportunities and will, ere long,
+achieve much in all the ranks of life and especially in their own peculiar
+sphere of womanly activity and influence. Woman will do more for the
+progress and development of the country than the sterner sex, as she has
+hitherto done more than he to conserve and dignify the past. And it is
+safe to conclude that the womanhood of India will discover its chief glory
+as it now finds its largest opportunity in Christianity. And I may add
+that the mission of Christianity to, and in behalf of, the women of that
+land may almost be called its chief mission, as the results which it has
+achieved, and will yet achieve, in this line, will constitute its chief
+glory.
+
+At large centres the Indian Christian community is already beginning to
+feel its power and is organizing in behalf of its own highest interest.
+
+The “Madras Native Christian Association” is perhaps the strongest
+organization of the community. It unites hundreds of the best members and
+gives them a corporate existence and furnishes opportunity to render
+articulate the ideals, ambitions and needs of the Christian community. It
+has recently undertaken several enterprises of importance, such as _The
+Twentieth Century Enterprise and the Indian Christian Industrial
+Exhibition_. It discusses, with much sanity, the most serious problems of
+the community and creates a worthy sentiment which will increasingly
+spread until it reaches the remotest parts of the country.
+
+All this tends to show that the community is growing conscious both of its
+strength, its responsibility and its opportunity.
+
+                [Illustration: Rev. S. Sattianatha, LL.D.]
+
+                [Illustration: Mrs. S. Kruba Sattianatha.]
+
+For the furtherance of this purpose weekly and monthly magazines, both in
+the English language and in the vernaculars, are being conducted by them.
+_The Christian Patriot_, the best organ of the community, is published in
+Madras, is conducted with much ability and represents the best sentiments
+of its constituents. It has done much to develop the consciousness of life
+and power in the community and has always urged worthy ideals upon its
+readers.
+
+The seriousness with which all the native Christians of India regard their
+calling and the gratitude with which they enjoy their faith is clearly
+attested by their offerings.
+
+Perhaps nothing can render more satisfactory reply to those who charge the
+native Christians with worldly motives than to show how far they deny
+themselves in behalf of their faith. In other words the benevolence and
+offerings of the native Christians may be taken as a fair test of their
+sincerity and of their spiritual appreciation. It is a good test in any
+land. I have said that they are very poor. A few years ago I investigated
+carefully the economic conditions of the most prosperous and largest
+village congregation of the Madura Mission. I discovered that five rupees
+(that is $1.66) was the average monthly income of each family of that
+congregation. And that meant only thirty-three cents a month for the
+support of each member of a family! We have congregations whose income is
+less than this. And yet, the Christians of that mission contributed over
+two rupees (seventy-five cents) per church member as their offering for
+1900. For all the Protestant Missions of South India the average offering
+per church member during 1900 was one rupee and nine annas (fifty-two
+cents). For South India this represented an aggregate sum of R 248,852
+($85,000) or about seven and one-half per cent, of the total sum expended
+in the missions during that year. An American can easily realize how much
+this offering is as an absolute gift; but he cannot realize how much of
+self-denial it means to that very poor people; nor how large an offering
+it is as related to the best offerings of our home churches today. If our
+American Christians contributed for the cause of Christ a percentage of
+their income equal to that of the native Christians of India they would
+quadruple their benevolence. And if, in relation to their income, the
+Christians of India contribute four times as much as the Christians of
+America, in relation to their real ability, after supplying the most
+primitive needs of their bodies, they contribute a hundred times more than
+do their brothers and sisters in this great land of luxury and abundance.
+Who in America, today, in contributing to the cause of Christ, denies
+himself a convenience or a comfort; yea more, who on that account fails to
+meet the craving of bodily appetite? And yet there are many Christians in
+India who suffer in both these respects in order that they may add the
+widow’s mite to the treasury of the Church and their loving offering to
+advance the Kingdom of the Lord.
+
+In this way the infant Christian Church of India, in its poverty of this
+world’s goods, is revealing a wealth of spirit and a richness of purpose
+such as are worthy of emulation in Christian lands today.
+
+The organized effort of the Indian Church for self-extension is rapidly
+multiplying. Every endeavour is put forth to train them out of that spirit
+of dependence which is one of the necessary evils incident to modern
+missions.
+
+In nearly all well organized missions in India are found, as we have
+already seen, Home Missionary Societies, which are conducted and
+maintained by the people, and which constantly direct their thoughts to
+their privilege to further the cause of Christ in their own land and among
+their own people.
+
+Work by the young for the young, also, is being conducted with increasing
+prevalence, zeal and success throughout the land.
+
+Indeed, all departments of a healthful, normal life and activity are
+vigorously prosecuted on mission territory with a view to imparting to the
+Christians, not only a knowledge of the highest type of Christian
+altruism, but also for the purpose of making them partakers of the same.
+
+And the Indian Christian community at present, notwithstanding all its
+faults and weaknesses, which I would not conceal, furnishes us much
+encouragement as a product of past effort and as a growing power which is
+to be used by God in the speedy upbuilding of his Kingdom in that great
+land of the East.
+
+There are, indeed, not many forms of organized Christian activity
+conducted by Indian Christians themselves—apart from Western missions.
+There are some, however, which are worthy of note and commendation. Such
+are Pandita Ramabai’s Mukti Mission for Widows; Miss Chuckerbutty’s
+flourishing Orphanages; Mrs. Sorabji’s High School for Women; the
+Gopalgange Mission started by the Rev. M. N. Bose, and Dr. P. B. Keskar’s
+Orphanage and Industrial School at Sholapur.
+
+Recently a novel enterprise was inaugurated in the American Mission,
+Jaffna, Ceylon, in the form of a Foreign Missionary Society, which sends
+forth, to a region in Southern India, its missionaries to carry the gospel
+of Christ to the non-Christians of that place. It is chiefly conducted and
+supported by the young people of the mission and is prophetic of a
+movement which will, ere long, spring up throughout India as a result of a
+growing sense of responsibility and opportunity among the Christians of
+that land.
+
+It is with no spirit of boasting that I wish to dwell upon the share which
+America has had in producing these results. Other people have done in some
+respects, better than we. But there is no doubt that India is much
+influenced by our land. America has, for a century, lavishly given her
+sons and daughters and expended her wealth for the salvation of India. Her
+sacrifices have not been in vain. None have found more hearty response
+among that people than the American Missions. Among the many Protestant
+Missions now at work in that Peninsula less than one-fourth are American;
+and, yet in connection with these missions have been gathered and are
+found nearly one-half of all of the Protestant Christians of that land. In
+South India the mission which has found much the largest success in
+gathering converts is an American Mission. In North India, again, one of
+our missions stands preëminent in the multitude of its Christians, and
+another, in the excellence of its educational power and leavening
+influence. In Western India, also, America stands first in the
+acknowledged power and preëminence of one of its missions.
+
+In the organized movements for the young, America again stands conspicuous
+in that land. As we study the wonderful activity exercised by Protestant
+Christianity in behalf of India’s youth, we are at once impressed by the
+leadership of American workers as we are by the American methods used.
+
+The finest Y. M. C. A. building in the Orient is mostly American, both in
+conception and in the organized energy and princely offering which made it
+possible. It stands today in the city of Madras, as one of the noblest and
+the most beautiful tributes of western Christian enterprise to that great
+land.
+
+The only theological seminary which has been adequately endowed for the
+training of Protestant Christian workers in India, is an American one.
+
+Perhaps the best, because the most sane and enterprising, Christian weekly
+newspaper in the land is American.
+
+The only Quarterly Review conducted in that land by Protestant Christians
+was founded by an American.
+
+And, in the same line, it is interesting to note that American presses and
+publishing houses are multiplying and are exercising an ever-widening
+influence in the redemption of that country.
+
+So largely have all these American agencies been used for the furtherance
+of Christian truth and light; and so much have they been welcomed and
+appropriated by the people, that it may well be spoken of as “an American
+Invasion.”
+
+The Bishop of Newcastle, England, referred to this in his last annual
+sermon. “So far,” he says, “has America realized the need of winning India
+to Christ that a hundred years hence, if the last thirty years’ proportion
+continue, India will owe its Christianity more to America than to Great
+Britain and Ireland combined.” These words are no less significant in
+their truthfulness than generous in their appreciation. England has been
+entrusted with the work of leading that great people of the Orient,
+politically and socially, into a larger and higher life. This, by a
+strange Providence, has been entrusted to her in consequence of her
+conquest of that people seven thousand miles away and seven times her own
+population. So also has America been favoured with a fair share of
+opportunity and of influence as the moral supporter of England in this
+unique and unprecedented work. And, while England by the nature of her
+compact, or conquest, is somewhat handicapped in this task, so far as her
+religious influence upon the people is concerned, America has free access
+and ample entrance into the heart of the community because of her
+disinterested and unrestrained relationship to them.
+
+Her voice to India has always been the voice of a constraining altruism.
+All her endeavours in that land have been the outgoings of a world-wide
+philanthropy and of Christian self-denial. Therefore, she has been free
+and unencumbered in all her ambitions for the uplifting of that people;
+and she has found the heartiest response and warmest appreciation from
+those whom she has sought to bless. Consequently, that noble band of 1,000
+of her sons and daughters, who are today giving themselves to the
+salvation of India; and the one million dollars sent forth annually to
+maintain her work in that land, are fruitful in the highest good and in
+the richest result in all parts of the land.
+
+While all this means a great achievement, it means also, and preëminently,
+a stirring opportunity. The widest door of opportunity is open to America
+among her antipodes in that historic land. Christian effort can nowhere
+else find heartier welcome or results more encouraging and telling in the
+great gathering of eastern nations into the Kingdom of our Lord.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               Chapter XI.
+
+
+MISSIONARY RESULTS—(CONTINUED)
+
+
+1. THE LEAVEN OF CHRISTIANITY.
+
+Our Lord compared his Kingdom to the mustard seed which grew into a tree.
+This wonderful growth and development of his Kingdom we considered in the
+last chapter. He compared it also to the leaven which was placed in the
+meal and which leavened the whole lump. We shall now consider the
+leavening or assimilating work of his Kingdom as at present witnessed in
+India.
+
+If a man were to ask me, “wherein do you find the most encouragement as a
+Christian worker in India?” I would doubtless reply:—not in the Church and
+community gathered by the missions, but outside of the Christian fold, in
+the institutions, and among the non-Christians, of the land. It is not in
+the fields already harvested (though much of joy and promise we certainly
+find there), but in the fields whitening for the harvest, that we see the
+largest hope for the ultimate conquest of that great people by Christ.
+
+There are in India, at present, a thousand results, movements and
+tendencies which, to the thoughtful, watchful, Christian worker, bespeak
+the rapid coming of the Kingdom of Christ, even though their testimony is
+not heard through mission statistical tables, and though their activity is
+found mostly outside the visible pale of the Church.
+
+I appreciate the fact that, when we begin to consider these results which
+lie outside the life and organization of the Christian community, we need
+much discernment and discrimination, lest we ascribe to Christianity alone
+an influence and an efficiency which it only shares with Western thought
+and civilization. But it is not only impossible to separate these forces,
+in our endeavour to estimate the share of each in the results achieved;
+western thought and civilization, both in their origin and development,
+are themselves as much the product as they are the expression of
+Christianity; so that we need not hesitate much in ascribing to our faith
+all the results which the combined energy of these have produced in that
+land.
+
+Another discrimination is here necessary. In the last chapter we dwelt,
+almost exclusively, upon Protestant missionary activity and results. These
+we were able to measure chiefly through the concentrated activity and
+published statistical reports of Protestant Missions. But, in considering
+the more indirect and general results there achieved we must not forget
+that they must be ascribed to all the Christian agencies at work in that
+land. I believe that Protestant Christianity is much the largest Christian
+power among all the forces that make for the redemption of India. And yet
+it would be presumptuous and unjust not to recognize the strenuous
+activity and pervasive influence of Roman Catholicism in the land. I am
+convinced that that great historic Church, with all its errors and false
+methods, is nevertheless a positive and a mighty power in the
+dissemination of Christian thought and principles in India. In the results
+which I am about to mention, this and all other Christian agencies have
+had their share.
+
+Some of these activities, indeed, _seem_ to come directly from none of the
+organized agencies of Christianity in the land. But they are only
+apparently so. They are among the thousand subtle influences which work in
+a quiet way in the minds and life of the people and which suddenly, from
+time to time, break upon our sight through their results. An illustration
+of this kind occurred not long ago. It is said that one of the vernacular
+versions of the Gospels accidentally fell into the hands of a Mohammedan
+Moulvi, or teacher, in North India. It had been prepared and published by
+the Bible Society. The Mussulman read the book with eagerness, chiefly
+with a view to find new arguments against the divinity of our Lord and the
+heavenly source of our faith. But, as he read, he was so impressed with
+the wonderful narrative and the unique beauty of the character of our
+Lord, that he surrendered himself to him as his Saviour and found in him
+peace and rest. Sometime later he met a Hindu fakir, named Chet Ram, who
+was earnestly in search of the truth. The Mohammedan convert joyfully told
+him of his newly found Saviour and gave him his copy of the New Testament
+that he might find for himself the same blessing. The Holy Spirit carried
+the Gospel message of life into his heart also, and he accepted Christ and
+at once began to preach him unto his friends and neighbours. This work he
+performed faithfully; and he gathered around himself many who accepted his
+following, short creed;—“I believe in Jesus Christ the Son of Mary and in
+the Holy Ghost and in the Father to whom prayer should be made and in the
+Bible through which salvation is to be received.” Chet Ram died some time
+ago; but there are today found, scattered through the villages of North
+India, thousands of his followers who subscribed to his brief creed and
+who always carry upon their persons a copy of the Scriptures. So far as I
+know, these people have never come into contact with Christian workers,
+but have been led simply through a study of God’s Word, under the guidance
+of God’s Spirit, unto Christ the Saviour of the world.
+
+It is one of the most encouraging facts connected with Christian influence
+in India that one so often and unexpectedly meets its manifestations in
+individual life and institutions. Suddenly he comes across little streams
+of influence whose source may be unknown, but which do a great deal
+towards fertilizing thought and producing a harvest of religious results
+throughout the land.
+
+The general subject of the influence of the West upon the East has been
+recently raised in the very interesting and thought-provoking book on
+“Asia and Europe” by the English writer, Meredith Townsend. He stiffly
+maintains that the West never has, and, probably, never will, seriously
+and permanently influence the East in thought and life. While there is a
+semblance, yea an element, of truth in his contention, so far as the past
+is concerned, it fails to apply to the India of the present and must fall
+far wide of the mark in the future. Many years have elapsed since the
+author of “Asia and Europe” left India; and he is not conversant, at first
+hand, with the mighty revolution which is taking place there at present.
+He fails, for one thing, to appreciate the wonderful influence of modern
+scientific discovery as a unifier of all peoples and as the handmaid of
+western life and thought and of Christian conquest. I need refer only to
+one of these modern agencies—the telegraph. The election of Mr. McKinley
+as president of the United States was known to me in India before it was
+known to nine-tenths of the population of this land.
+
+The calamity which recently befell Galveston, Texas, was not only known to
+Hindus, the very next day; the price of cotton went up in South India
+villages as a consequence of that sad event. The generous offerings
+recently contributed in America for the famine sufferers in India were
+actually distributed to them in food the next day after they were offered!
+Can these things, and a thousand like them, which enter into the every-day
+transactions of East and West, have no permanent influence upon the
+relations of these once remote but now neighbouring people? Isolation has
+everywhere given way to intercourse and mutual dependence; and that means
+community of life and thought which produces fundamental action and
+reaction.
+
+Under these new and marvellous conditions the former “mental seclusion of
+India,” so unduly emphasized by Mr. Townsend, is rapidly yielding and must
+utterly pass away. It will, however, not pass away simply because of the
+influence of the West upon the East, but rather because of the mutual
+action and reaction of East and West. The East will approach the West
+because, to a large extent, the West will have learned to appreciate, and
+to draw in sympathy towards, the East. Herein lies the secret of the
+future oneness, or at least of the communion, of the two great
+hemispheres.
+
+India is, therefore, in this matter, facing today such conditions as never
+before existed there; and these are to further considerably the work of
+revolution which our religion is bringing to pass in that land, and which
+such pessimists as Mr. Townsend are wont to ignore.
+
+That keen philosopher and high authority upon India, Sir Alfred Lyall, is
+right in his anticipation when he claims that India “will be carried
+swiftly through phases which have occupied long stages in the lifetime of
+other nations.”
+
+Considering, then, the leavening influences and the general results of our
+faith in that land we shall see them in many institutions and departments
+of life.
+
+(_a_) In laws which the government of India has enacted during the last
+century.
+
+There has been a steady conflict between the enlightened government of the
+white man and the inhuman customs of the people of that land. The
+Christian sentiment of the members of the government, and of other
+Christians outside of that circle, has ever rebelled against and sought to
+put down the grossest evils which obtain there.
+
+And the fact which we need to emphasize here is that these evils have been
+directed and protected by Hinduism itself and are an integral part of its
+ceremonies and teachings. Whenever the government has sought, by
+legislation, to do away with these inhuman rites and customs it has been
+bitterly opposed by Hinduism and has been met by a general uprising of its
+followers against what they have called religious interference and
+persecution. Thus the suppression of Thuggism was a definite attack upon a
+religious institution, for the Thuggs never committed a murder, save as a
+part of their worship of the goddess Bhowanee to whose service they had
+dedicated themselves and to which the blood of the innocent traveller (as
+they thought) was the most welcome sacrifice its devotee could offer.
+Hence the difficulty which faced the government in bringing these
+religious murders to an end.
+
+Suttee was also regarded as a high type of religious devotion. For the
+widow to immolate herself upon the funeral pyre of her dead husband was
+not only the supreme test of wifely devotion, it was also preëminently the
+highest religious act possible to her; and it brought to her a future
+bliss which was painted in glowing and attractive colours by the sacred
+books of her faith. It was not strange, therefore, that the State
+hesitated, for a long time, to abolish by law this hideous custom, whereby
+in the year 1817, for instance, two widows were burned daily in the Bengal
+Presidency alone.
+
+It was in the face of extensive protest and threats by orthodox Hindus
+that the government abolished it. “Previous to 1857, 150 human sacrifices
+are said to have been annually offered in Gumsur, a city in East Central
+India; and the abolition of that horrible custom raised such a storm of
+opposition among the Hindus that an eight years’ war was the result. More
+than 2,000 victims were rescued from sacrifice and handed over to the care
+of the missionaries.” In like manner infanticide was encouraged for
+centuries in the land as an act of religious devotion which was possessed
+of great efficacy. In the name of religion and with the promise of its
+highest blessings mothers were led to feed the crocodiles of the sacred
+Ganges by throwing to them their own infants.
+
+It seems hardly possible that human beings could regard the prohibition of
+that inhuman and unnatural act as a piece of injustice and an interference
+with the rights of conscience. And yet it was so regarded!
+
+Not fewer than twenty laws have thus been enacted in that land, during the
+last century, with a view to putting an end to religious customs which
+robbed thousands of people, annually, of life itself and deprived many
+thousands more of the most elementary and inalienable rights of human
+beings. So it has become penal to do any one of the following things, all
+of which were regarded as expressions of the highest religious devotion
+and were committed with the sanction of the ancestral faith and under the
+inspiration of its benediction: to burn widows; to expose parents to death
+on the banks of the Ganges; to offer up human sacrifice; to murder
+children, either by throwing them into the Ganges, or by the Rajpoot
+secret method of infanticide; to encourage men to throw away their lives
+under temple cars and in other ways of religious devotion; to encourage
+various forms of voluntary self-torture and self-mutilation; to outrage
+girls under a certain age.
+
+How much hath the Spirit of Christ wrought in that land during the century
+by saving the lives of millions of poor innocent creatures from the
+ravages of a savage faith and an inhuman religious devotion!
+
+Thus, in India today the laws protect the people, old and young, from the
+old murderous customs of its religion, and gives a sanctity to life and a
+protection to the innocent and a check to the mad, suicidal tendency of
+the religious fanatic, such as India never before knew. And all this has
+been done in the teeth of their religion and notwithstanding the
+persistent cries and protests of the religious leaders of the people.
+
+I have already mentioned the fact that the obscene and the impure have in
+many ways been fostered by that faith, and that the government has thus
+far been unable to find courage to apply to religious temples, symbols and
+rites that legislation which it has enacted against the obscene in
+literature and in the ordinary life of the people. And yet, we are
+encouraged to find there this anomaly today,—that men, for translating and
+publishing obscene portions of the Hindu scriptures, have been punished in
+accordance with this law. The day will, doubtless, soon come, it must
+come, when this legislation against obscenity will be enforced without
+exception in favour of temple cars and sacred objects and rites.
+
+In reference to caste observance the State has been more courageous and
+has absolutely ignored class distinction among its subjects. No one who
+has not lived in the East can realize how radical and important this
+policy is in that land of class distinctions based upon religious
+injunction and revelation. It seemed absurd and unrighteous to that people
+that the august and sacred Brahman and the unclean and outcaste Pariah
+should be regarded as equal before the law, and that a pauper should
+enjoy, with a prince, the same protection and blessings from the State.
+Regardless of immemorial custom and religious injunction, the government
+has become the great leveller—it has ignored entirely, in all the rights
+and privileges which it has to confer, every caste distinction and class
+privilege and disability which Hinduism had created and sacredly
+maintained for centuries. And it adheres stiffly to its Christian
+principle of the equal rights of all its subjects.
+
+(_b_) Moreover, Hinduism itself is being gradually transformed under the
+search-light of a present Christianity.
+
+Not only has it been compelled, from without, to give up some of its
+inhuman practices, it has also voluntarily, from very shame, relinquished
+some of its grossest evils.
+
+There is a very interesting conflict now going on in Hinduism—between the
+ultra-conservatives and the progressives. This latter class is composed
+almost entirely of men who have been educated in mission and government
+schools, and who have been influenced by Christian light and life.
+
+I do not expect much from a Christianized Hinduism any more than I do from
+a Hinduized Christianity. And yet we cannot be unmindful of, nor
+ungrateful for, that growing sense of shame which leads that faith to
+conceal, if not to abandon entirely, some of its worst crimes against man
+and to adorn itself in such a way that it may not too violently shock the
+sensibilities of a people who are living under the growing light of a
+Christian civilization.
+
+This is what the ancestral faith of India is now intent upon doing, at
+least so far as the changing situation compels. The influence of educated
+Hindus upon the pundits and other religious guides of the land is
+increasing annually, and is steadily in favour of religious reform and of
+a broad and enlightened interpretation of Shastraic deliverances upon
+religious customs. For example, a few years ago, sea voyages were strictly
+prohibited to all Hindus. No exceptions were allowed and excommunication
+was the inevitable penalty for the violation of this religious injunction.
+Today hundreds of Hindus, impelled by an ambition for the best education
+and for a broad culture, annually travel to England and to other foreign
+lands. Though some of those men are punished for their temerity in defying
+this sacred injunction of their faith, it is remarkable how many pundits
+arise to defend such travel and to reduce the opprobrium which overtakes a
+sea-travelled man. Indeed, every year adds to the ease with which such a
+man can avoid punishment for going abroad.
+
+Until recently, Hinduism had no way of reinstating a man who had deserted
+his ancestral faith and had thereby broken caste. Today this subject is up
+for discussion, and many of the religious leaders are pointing to passages
+from their Scriptures which justify such a reinstatement and are showing
+methods by which it can be effected. In consequence of this not a few
+back-sliding Christians have recently found an open door to reenter their
+ancestral faith. This is an important move; but I doubt whether it will
+cause Christians to lose any converts save those who are not sincere and
+who would therefore be better outside than within the Christian Church.
+
+A generation ago few Hindus in the villages of the land would fail to
+defend polytheism and idolatry as an essential part of their faith. At
+present the Christian preacher, as he travels among these same people,
+finds universal assent to his declaration concerning the unity of God. I
+have hardly met one villager in the land who maintains today that there
+are really “gods many.” Polytheism is not defended but explained away, and
+idolatry, it is claimed, is only an accommodation—a kind of religious
+kindergarten—for the sake of the very ignorant, and “for women and
+children.” But of course, pantheism is the Hindu’s conception of the
+divine unity.
+
+Whenever an educated Hindu defends his faith, in an argument with a
+Christian, he never quotes as scriptural authority the more recent
+writings of their faith—the Tantras and Puranas, which are the storehouse
+of legend and myth, of myriad rites and customs and are the refuge and joy
+of the orthodox and conservative pandits;—he discards these and falls back
+upon the most ancient writings, which are the exponents of nature worship
+and of vedantic philosophy. Or he will extol the Bhagavat Gita, which is
+an eclectic attempt to unify and approve the conflicting philosophies of
+Brahmanism.
+
+In these, and in many other ways, Hinduism finds today new presentation
+and defence. It is not the thing it used to be. And yet in matters of
+fundamental importance it is and will remain unchanged. In some respects
+these changes make that ancient faith less vulnerable to attack. In the
+words of Doctor Robson,—“The influence of Christianity upon Hinduism has
+been rather to strengthen its rival by forcing it to abandon certain
+positions which weakened it, and bringing it more into accordance with
+natural religion. But Hinduism remains the same. The contest is coming to
+be between the ultimate principles of the two religions, and these are
+irreconcilable.”(14) Yes, it will be a good day for Christianity when the
+great contest is thus narrowed down, and when the deepest teachings of the
+two faiths will be placed in clear and simple juxtaposition.
+
+One serious source of danger in this controversy lies in the Neo-Hinduism
+which interprets Hinduism in the light of Christian truth and modern
+thought. Hindus formerly maintained that the teachings of Christianity
+were false. Now they tell us that most of its truths were taught by their
+own faith even before the Christian era! Through the allegories of their
+Shastras, and under the guidance of the fertile imagination of that
+Englishwoman, Mrs. Besant, they find equally the best Christian truth and
+most recent results of modern scientific discovery taught by their ancient
+scriptures! Mrs. Besant has even discovered that the ten incarnations of
+Vishnu are based on strict evolution principles and follow that order.
+
+She claims, indeed, that many of the most recent discoveries in the
+physical universe were anticipated and promulgated three millenniums ago
+by Hindu rishis. This of course is a method of insanity which will soon
+give way to a newer craze. For the present it helps to evade or confuse
+the issue in certain minds; but as it is in itself a substitution of
+nonsense for argument and reason it will not long deceive any one, not
+even the poor Hindu.
+
+And just as, under the present Christian régime, Hinduism is rapidly being
+transformed, no less truly does the Mohammedan faith undergo change. There
+is a new Islam arising in India. That faith cannot be preserved in its
+rigid integrity under the ægis of a Christian government; therefore in
+India the faith of the great Arabian prophet has undergone marked
+transformation during the last century and a half. Its religious leaders
+there are rationalists who scrutinize and criticise the Koran with the
+boldness of the higher critics of the Bible. They both urge that the Koran
+has no permanent authority on moral questions, and also insist upon
+progress in all religious matters.(15)
+
+This young Mohammedan party of progress have found a vigorous leader in
+Judge Amir Ali Sahib, a brilliant writer, who hesitates not to explain
+away or antagonize all those teachings of his faith which lie athwart the
+path of progress and enlightenment.
+
+He avows, in his book on “The Spirit of Islam,” that his purpose is to
+assist “the Muslims of India to achieve intellectual and moral
+regeneration under the auspices of the Great European Power that now holds
+their destiny in its hands.” “The reformers,” he further writes, “are
+congratulated that the movement set on foot is conducted under a neutral
+government.” Thus a Mussulman writer declares that the highest reforms can
+best be conducted under a Christian government!
+
+All this is illustrative of that leavening influence of our faith as it
+comes into contact with and permeates the spirit and teaching of these and
+other religions of that land.
+
+(_c_) Another marked result of Christianity in that country is seen in the
+attitude of many thousands of Hindus who live contiguous to the Christian
+communities found there.
+
+In the first place we see it among the common people. I have already
+referred to mass movements which have largely helped to strengthen the
+Christian Church in the past. Those movements have only just begun; they
+will continue and increase in the land. Day by day Christianity is
+commending itself to the people in a thousand ways. In times of famine,
+when the old religious leaders of the people—the Brahmans—render no help
+and manifest no sympathy, yea more, are as rapacious as ever, the loving
+sympathy of Christians there and in far off lands, and their outgoing
+charity and their substantial help to the famine stricken and the
+suffering—all this does not fall in vain upon the susceptible mind of the
+people.
+
+This work of Christianity in uniting the world through brotherhood and
+sympathy seems wonderful to a people who are crushed and robbed by the
+wretched divisiveness of their own terrible caste system. They recognize
+also the truth and the life which Christianity presents in contrast with
+the debasing idolatry and the senseless, all-pervasive ceremonialism which
+haunt them.
+
+It is not surprising therefore that we see, not only certain mass
+movements towards our faith but also, on the outskirts of the Christian
+community in every district, a growing number of doubting, halting
+ones—those who have done with their ancestral faith and who are attracted
+by the religion of Christ, but who are so much afraid of the terrible
+demon, caste, that they dare not openly accept Christ and unite with God’s
+people through baptism. They linger on the outside, hoping for some great
+tide of influence to come, soon, to carry them, without persecution, into
+the kingdom. Their attitude of mind is encouraging, and the missionary
+hopes for the day which will furnish the strength and opportunity for this
+great host of weak and doubting ones to make its decision for Christ and
+to enter, in ever-increasing numbers, into His Kingdom.
+
+I have come into daily, close touch with many men and women of this class.
+They, at the same time, encourage and exasperate one. They give evidence
+of the strong influence of our faith upon them—they have ceased to visit
+Hindu temples, they decline to worship the family and tribal gods, they
+lose no opportunity to denounce the idolatry and superstitions which have
+debased them, and they always speak to their friends a warm word for
+Christianity and often attend its meetings in their village. But there
+they continue to stand. They are the slaves of caste fear and of social
+inertia. While, however, they stand and wait they often say the word and
+give the encouragement which enable others to accept Christ openly and to
+enter the Christian fold.
+
+They are also always glad to send their children to our schools and are
+willing to have them instructed in the truth and guided into the life of
+our faith. They often contribute towards the support of Christian pastor
+or teacher, and in various other ways evince their sympathy and reveal
+their intellectual assent.
+
+For instance:—In Tinnevelly there is a hall built by such a Hindu to
+commemorate the late Queen Victoria, in which lectures and entertainments
+are held. Christian ministers are frequently asked to pray at these
+gatherings; and former years have witnessed requests by the donor for
+prayer, from well-known ministers and bishops. Such appreciation of
+Christian worship is very pleasing, particularly as the proprietor is a
+member of a committee that has the oversight of nearly 300 Sivite temples
+in the district.
+
+They also show their appreciation of the medical work of Christian
+missions. In the city of Madura stands one of the finest hospitals in the
+country. It is the property of the American Board, but was erected, at an
+expense of $14,000 by members of the orthodox Hindu community as a
+monument of their appreciation of the mission physician and of their
+confidence in the mission and its work.
+
+(_d_) Another marked feature of the religious life of India, at present,
+is the existence there of several new cults or religions. They not only
+add picturesqueness to the religious situation, they also reveal the
+unrest of the people and their desire for something better than the
+orthodox faith of their fathers furnishes them.
+
+              [Illustration: Sacred Tank In Madura Temple.]
+
+        [Illustration: Hospital For Men, American Madura Mission.]
+
+Having become dissatisfied and disgusted with their ancestral religion,
+they are striving in every possible way, short of being Christians, to
+seek for something better and higher. This is what we should expect. In
+the many schools and colleges of the land the subtle metaphysics of the
+East is supplanted by the modern philosophy of the West; their own
+bewildering ancient rules of logic are replaced by the more rational
+processes of the West. So that every university matriculate and graduate
+of India is today crammed with ideas, and trained in methods of thinking,
+which make a belief in practical Hinduism and in much of its philosophy an
+impossibility, if not an absurdity.
+
+Thus we see in that land today a number of movements and organizations
+which are a protest against orthodox Hinduism and are carrying the people,
+in thought and sympathy, from the past to the present, from the old to the
+new. Most of these movements are merely half-way houses between Hinduism
+and Christianity. They are with faces more or less turned towards the
+light and possess the progressive spirit which, in some cases, cannot fail
+of landing their members, at no distant date in the Christian fold. For
+instance, we have in western India the _Prartanei Somaj_ (prayer society);
+in north India the _Arya Somaj_ (Aryan society), and in Bengal the _Brahmo
+Somaj_ (society of God).
+
+These are healthy movements, away from a general, old-fashioned view of
+religious things. Take, for example, the Brahmo Somaj. Though not as large
+in membership as the Arya Somaj it represents more culture and power.
+Nearly all the members are men of education and of western training, and
+represent much more influence than their number (4,000) would suggest.
+Their new faith is an eclecticism. It has adopted a little of Hinduism and
+of Buddhism and of Mohammedanism and a great deal of Christianity. The
+movement, especially that progressive branch which was under the
+leadership of Protab Chunder Mozumdar, is largely Christian in drift and
+spirit. Mozumdar accepts Christ, though not in the fullness of belief in
+His divinity or in His atoning work; nevertheless with an amount of
+appreciation, affection, devotion and loyalty not met even among many
+Western Christians today. His book on “The Oriental Christ” is full of
+appreciation and reveals a wonderful knowledge of the eastern Christ from
+an Eastern standpoint. I shall not be surprised to see the members of this
+society landing, at an early date, through a full confession of Christ, in
+membership of the Christian Church.
+
+In the meanwhile it is disappointing to find this organization divided,
+already, into so many mutually antagonistic sects. It is also a reason for
+regret that Mozumdar, who is a man of great culture, intelligence and deep
+spiritually, has recently relinquished the leadership of the movement.
+Having retired to the Himalayas, he communicates his reasons in these
+truly oriental, pathetic and pessimistic words:
+
+“Age and sickness get the better of me in these surroundings, I cannot
+work as I would—contemplation is distracted, concentration disturbed,
+though I struggle ever so much. These solitudes are hospitable; these
+breadths, heights and depths are always suggestive. I acquire more spirit
+with less struggle, hence I retire.
+
+“My thirst for the higher life is growing so unquenchable that I need the
+time and the grace to reëxamine and purify and reform every part of my
+existence. The Spirit of God promises me that grace if I am alone. So let
+me alone.
+
+“The rich are so vain and selfish, the poor are so insolent and mean, that
+having respect for both I prefer to go away from them.
+
+“The learned think so highly of themselves, the ignorant are so full of
+hatred and uncharitableness, that having good will for both I prefer to
+hide myself from all.
+
+“The religious are so exclusive, the sceptical so self-sufficient that it
+is better to be away from both.
+
+“Where are the dead? Have not they too retired? I wish my acquaintance
+with the dead should grow, that my communion with them should be
+spontaneous, perpetual, unceasing. I will invoke them and wait for them in
+my hermitage.
+
+“What is life? Is it not a fleeting shadow, the graveyard of dead hopes,
+the battlefield of ghastly competitions, the playground of delusions,
+separations, cruel changes and disappointments? I have had enough of
+these. And now with the kindliest love for all, I must prepare and
+sanctify myself for the great Beyond, where there is solution for so many
+problems, and consolation for so many troubles....”
+
+This seems an unworthy ending to a very worthy life. And yet a movement
+which has created two such men as Chunder Sen and Protab Mozumdar is a
+compliment to Christianity and has a mission before it. But it must
+undergo many changes ere it can exercise a commanding influence in the
+land.
+
+A much more popular movement is the Arya Somaj. The recent census reports
+40,000 members of this organization. If Brahmo Somaj represents the
+working of that Hindu mind which has been imbued with European culture and
+Christian thought towards a solution of its religious doubts and problems;
+the Arya Somaj represents a strong Theistic movement springing forth out
+of Hinduism itself. This latter movement is possessed of unwonted vigour
+and has a future before it. The founder of this Somaj was Dyanand
+Sarasvati, a Brahman who was born about the year 1825. He was a man of
+much thought and of deep religious interest. He was entirely ignorant of
+the English language. He broke with orthodox Hinduism after reading the
+Christian Scriptures. And yet he also attacked the character of Jesus. He
+accepted the Hindu Vedas as Scriptures, but interpreted them so freely
+that he was able to find in them all that he desired of religious reform.
+He vigorously opposed caste.
+
+The following are some of the principles of the Arya Somaj:
+
+1. God is the primary source of all true knowledge.
+
+2. God is perfect in all His attributes and should be worshipped.
+
+3. The Vedas are the books of true knowledge.
+
+4. The caste system is a human invention and is evil.
+
+5. Early marriage is prohibited.
+
+The movement has assumed the aspect of a sect of Hinduism. But some of its
+fundamental contentions are so directly antagonistic to most cherished
+institutions of Hinduism that it is a mighty disintegrator of that
+religion in the land.
+
+It must be confessed that the Arya Somaj is, in its present spirit,
+anti-Christian. It champions the cause of home religion in the East as
+against the aggression of the great rival, Christianity. But the teachers
+of our faith in India find encouragement equally in the hostility of this
+movement and in its coöperation in a common attack upon modern Hinduism.
+Any movement, that effectively calls the attention of the people to the
+weakness and defects of its ancestral religion, cannot fail, in that very
+process, to invite their attention to the claims of its rival,
+Christianity.
+
+The chief function of all these movements is to reveal the general
+religious interest of the people. Indeed, they forward greatly the spirit
+of discontent towards the ancestral faith. And while they do this, they
+themselves furnish a no more satisfying or soul-inspiring substitute. And
+in this way they emphasize the need of a new faith and draw the thought of
+many to the new supplanting religion of the Christ. Chunder Sen, even
+twenty years ago, declared that, “None but Jesus, none but Jesus, none but
+Jesus is worthy to wear this diadem, India, and He shall have it.” Yes,
+even through such movements as the Brahmo Somaj, Christ is winning India
+for himself.
+
+The educated classes of India are largely permeated and influenced by
+Western thought. They may not be inclined to join any of the reform
+movements which I have mentioned; but they are now thinking on absolutely
+different lines from those of their ancestors fifty years ago. The
+dissemination of Western literature, and especially the conduct of so many
+Christian schools have done more, perhaps, than any other thing to create
+an intellectual ferment and to produce a revolution of thought in all
+parts of the land.
+
+One cannot unduly emphasize the importance of Christian schools in India.
+The government schools and the Hindu institutions of learning are
+acknowledged to be the hot-beds of rationalism and of unbelief. They not
+only furnish no religious instruction to the youth, they too often give
+the impression that all religion is a mere superstition and is unworthy of
+being taught.
+
+To such an extent is this trend and influence observable that the
+government experiences much concern, coupled with an expressed, though
+vague, desire, that this evil be arrested by the introduction, into all
+public schools, of some method of imparting at least the fundamental
+principles of religion. But to discover the method of accomplishing this,
+without violating the principle of religious neutrality, seems beyond its
+power.
+
+In the meanwhile mission schools have a grand sphere opened to them on
+this line. They are not only a common agency, with governmental and all
+other higher institutions, in the work of undermining and destroying vain
+credulity and the whole brood of superstitions which are legion in India;
+they are also a positive and constructive force in the impartation of
+those principles of morality and teachings of religion which will ennoble
+life here and hereafter. And in this connection it should not be forgotten
+that all mission schools—higher and lower—enjoy unlimited opportunity to
+teach, daily, to all their students God’s Word and to apply its principles
+and its saving message to the minds of the half million students who are
+being trained by them.
+
+I desire to emphasize again the importance of all these schools as the
+most potent agency, apart from the native Church itself, in the
+transformation of the thought and life of India. It is a noteworthy fact
+that the only statue erected to a missionary in India was that recently
+unveiled by the Governor of Madras in the city of Madras to Dr. Wm.
+Miller. This noble missionary educator has wrought mightily, through his
+great institution in Madras, for the upbuilding of Christian truth in the
+minds of Christian and non-Christian youth alike. And this statue is a
+unique tribute of gratitude from his “old boys”—most of them still Hindus,
+indeed—to the man who has been instrumental in opening before them the
+broad vistas of Western thought and of Christian truth and life. But more
+enduring than marble will abide the blessed results which he and his
+colabourers have wrought in the thought and life of the more than 2,000
+graduates who have been educated by them. Of these there are 1,800 who
+represent the Hindus of thought and culture in South India at present.
+Such is the influence of one Christian school.
+
+If the work of the thousands of village Christian schools is more humble
+in its aim it is much more pervasive in its reach, and it marvellously
+directs thought and inspires life in remote villages.
+
+Twelve years ago I opened one little primary school in a small unlettered
+heathen village. Ten bright Hindu boys sought instruction at the hands of
+the devout old Christian teacher placed there. Today these boys have grown
+into manhood and, with one or two exceptions, have entered into the
+Christian life and have been formed into a Christian congregation. They
+are not only intelligent, but firm and beautiful in their new-found
+Christian hope. Moreover, the whole village is permeated with Christian
+truth and it resounds with the appeal of our faith. In this way have come
+into existence many of the best and strongest congregations of the
+Christian Church in India.
+
+But, to return to the educated class in India. We have considered already
+its attitude of mind towards the supplanting religion of Jesus.
+
+                [Illustration: Madras Christian College.]
+
+                 [Illustration: Bombay Railway Station.]
+
+Their opposition to Christianity, as it is now presented to them, I can
+appreciate. They are beginning, for the first time, to think seriously and
+philosophically about religion. They are, more than ever before, impatient
+with their past, and annoyed with the inadequacy of their present faith.
+It is not strange if this feeling is shown in their attitude towards the
+only supplanting faith. In this matter they are on the way to light and
+truth. The under-current is strongly right and in the direction of an
+enlightened and an enlightening religion. They are more earnestly in quest
+of truth than ever before. Moreover it is not substantive Christianity,
+but adjectival Christianity—the too Western type of our faith—which
+arouses their antagonism. And I must again express my belief that, before
+Christianity is to gain universal acceptance by the people of India, it
+must be dissociated from many Western ideas and practices which seem to us
+essential even to its very life. When we learn to forget our antecedents
+and prejudices and to study well the Hindu mind and its tendency, then
+perhaps shall we be prepared to present a Christianity which will commend
+itself universally to that land. The Rev. G. T. E. Slater in his new book,
+wisely emphasized this same need.
+
+“The West,” he says, “has to learn from the East, and the East from the
+West. The questions raised by the Vedanta will have to pass into
+Christianity if the best minds of India are to embrace it; and the Church
+of the ‘farther East’ will doubtless contribute something to the thought
+of Christendom, of the science of the soul, and of the omnipenetrativeness
+and immanence of Deity.”(16)
+
+But the most encouraging aspect of this question is the present attitude
+of the mind of educated India towards Christ himself.
+
+Listen to the words of an orthodox Hindu in a recent lecture delivered to
+his fellow Hindus:—“How can we,” he says, “be blind to the greatness, the
+unrivalled splendour of Jesus Christ. Behind the British Empire and all
+European Powers lies the single great personality—the greatest of all
+known to us—of Jesus Christ. He lives in Europe and America, in Asia and
+Africa as King and Guide and Teacher. He lives in our midst. He seeks to
+revivify religion in India. We owe everything, even this deep yearning
+towards our own ancient Hinduism, to Christianity.”
+
+All former antipathy to, and depreciation of Jesus, our Lord, have given
+way to appreciation and admiration. They vie with each other in a study of
+His life and regard Him as the only perfect Exemplar of man. That great
+land which has never found in its old faith an ideal of life is now
+finding it in our blessed Lord. This movement towards Him is remarkable.
+They are enthroning Him in their imagination and are drawing Him to their
+hearts.
+
+A Braham friend of mine—a devout Hindu, a university graduate, a barrister
+and a leader of the Hindu community, requested me to purchase for him a
+pocket copy of Thomas a Kempis’ “Imitation of Christ.” He possessed a
+large copy, but desired a small one which he could carry with him and
+could use for devotional purposes on his journeys. Some of his friends
+sought other copies through him. Thus they bought all the copies that I
+could find for sale in South India. He also asked me to buy for him a copy
+of Dr. Sheldon’s book, “In His Steps.”
+
+I bought four dozen copies and sold all to Brahmans and to native
+Christians. One of our pastors bought a copy. He soon handed it to a
+Brahman friend—a government official and a university graduate—requesting
+him to read it. This he did, and, returning with the book a few days
+later, he earnestly said—“Sir, why don’t you bring us more such books as
+this. We also want to know more of Christ and to follow ‘In His Steps.’ ”
+
+Indeed, I find a wonderful eagerness among Hindus of culture to know all
+that can be known about the life and teaching of our Lord, even though
+they are not prepared to accept his atonement as their salvation. The same
+fact is true among the common people. There are not a few who believe that
+the tenth—that is, the coming—incarnation of Vishnu (Kalki avatar) refers
+to Christ. A Hindu Saivite devotee told me once that they proposed soon to
+place in their monastery an image of Christ (as they had one of Vishnu)
+and thus render to Him worship in common with the others. I am confident
+that Hindus, all but unanimously, would, today, vote to give him a place
+in their pantheon and a share in their worship, if Christians would accede
+to this. “Did we not,” they say, “thus appropriate Buddha, the arch-enemy
+of Brahmanism, twenty-five centuries ago, and make him the ninth
+incarnation of Vishnu? And why should we not regard Christ, also, as the
+tenth ‘descent’ of our beloved Vishnu.”
+
+I deem this trend towards Christ, and it is marked especially among the
+educated in all parts of India, as the greatest encouragement to the
+Christian worker in that land today.
+
+I care not so much whether they accept our faith in its Western form and
+spirit, so long as I see them growing in their appreciation of, and
+devotion to the Christ. Through Him I am sure they will pass on to some
+outer expression or other of their faith in Him—an expression which will
+doubtless correspond with their own oriental turn of thought and life.
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+Thus, whether we look at the growing Christian community and its many
+cheering features of life and of activity; or whether we study the
+non-Christian community and all the social and national institutions of
+that land, we find large encouragement and a rich assurance of the speedy
+coming of the Kingdom of our Lord.
+
+Nearly a century ago—the very time in which America, through the America
+Board, sent its first missionaries to that great land—the Directors of the
+East India Company placed on record their sentiments in the following
+words:
+
+“The sending of Christian missionaries to our Eastern possessions is the
+maddest, most expensive, most unwarranted project that was ever proposed
+by a lunatic enthusiast.” This was, at that time, the conviction and the
+confession of the English rulers of India. It was the voice of unbelief
+and the declaration of defiant opposition. How different the attitude and
+the words of Sir Rivers Thompson; the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal, near
+the close of that same century. “In my judgment,” he says, “Christian
+missionaries have done more real and lasting good to the people of India
+than all other agencies combined.” Certainly, a no more competent witness
+than he, and a no more conclusive evidence than his, could be desired.
+
+In my compound in South India, for a quarter of a century, a date palm
+tree grew and flourished. Years later a seed was carried by a bird and
+dropped at the foot of this palm tree. It was the seed of the sacred _boh_
+tree. It also sprouted and its slender, subtle shoot wound round the
+sturdy palm. Every year it grew higher until it finally towered above the
+date palm; and the higher it grew the more its winding stem thickened; and
+as it thickened it began to tighten its grip upon the other tree. That
+grip, so weak and innocent at first, soon became to the palm tree a grip
+of death. For every day so added to the encircling power of the _boh_ tree
+that, about three years ago, it completely enshrouded and killed the palm.
+Today that _boh_ tree stands alone, indicating, by its spiral form, where
+the unfortunate palm found its death; and it stretches forth its beautiful
+branches in rich verdure and in welcome shade to all who seek refuge from
+the heat of the tropical sun.
+
+This is only a parable of the struggle which is witnessed in India today.
+For many centuries the tree of Brahmanism has flourished. It covers that
+whole land. But at its very root has been sown the seed of God’s Word and
+there is growing out of it, in its beauty and strength, the sacred tree of
+our Faith. Already it has the old tree in its almighty grip. The work of
+death is progressing and the final issue is sure.
+
+But it will not transpire in a day. The victory will come, is now coming.
+
+But the resources of Hinduism are legion, and its strange fascination, to
+some extent, continues. India, which is increasingly becoming Christ’s in
+thought and ideals, will become his in worship and ritual, when his name
+shall be heard in every home throughout the land. But we need patience;
+and the grand result to be achieved is worthy of the noblest endurance and
+of the most patient waiting.
+
+Christian workers in that great land are faithfully labouring and
+hopefully waiting until the fruitful branches of the sacred tree of
+Christianity shall have spread over the whole land, so that its shade may
+be the refuge of all souls in distress and its fruit shall abound for the
+healing of all the nations of India.
+
+The resources and the agencies of our Faith, which are now utilized for
+the furtherance of the truth in that land, are already wonderfully varied
+and potent; but they are also increasing annually in prevailing power as
+in bewildering variety. Every Christian drawn from Hinduism and added to
+the fold of Christ becomes, in himself, a force to draw and to win others
+to Christ. This power has already become the main agency in the growth of
+the church, and its efficiency is to grow in geometric ratio as the years
+increase.
+
+The great need of India today is the power of the Holy Spirit of God. His
+people must bring themselves much more into subjection to his Spirit, that
+they may, the more fully, be the vehicles of His grace to others and the
+channel of His power in the land. The dangers of God’s Church are, and
+will preëminently be, dangers from within rather than from without. It is
+Hinduism, godlessness and sin within which must be fought with an eternal
+vigilance and an uncompromising hostility. And for this a larger baptism
+will mean a mighty fire of God kindled in the whole Church such as will
+burn all its dross and consume all opposition. And then shall we speedily
+witness the great desire of our heart—a happy, prosperous India, because
+it will be Emmanuel’s land—a part of the great Fold of Christ.
+
+This consummation is as sure as God’s own promises, for, in all his work,
+the missionary is not only encouraged by results achieved and by
+assurances given, but also by the double promise of God. First he has the
+promise of the Father to the Son:
+
+“Ask of me and I will give to thee the heathen for thine inheritance and
+the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.” The Son _has_ asked
+and is seeking the possession of the earth; and in the confidence of his
+assurance he exclaims, “All authority is given unto me in heaven and in
+earth.” And, to his waiting disciples, he adds, “Go ye therefore and make
+disciples of all nations.” And with this all-embracing command he coupled
+the all-satisfying promise, “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end
+of the world.” Amen.
+
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+Administration, Mission, 264-286
+
+Advaitha, 82
+
+Agency employed by Hinduism and Christianity, 89
+
+Agents, Mission, 304
+
+Aims of the Two Faiths, 87
+
+American Effort in India, 179, 329
+
+American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, 180
+
+American Push, 187
+
+Amir Ali Sahib, 345
+
+Anglo-Saxon Effort in India, 172
+
+Appliances, Missionary, 300
+
+Army, The, 44
+
+Aryans, 15, 289, 316
+
+Arya Somaj, 313, 315, 349, 351
+
+Asceticism of Hindus, 120
+
+“Asia and Europe,” 335
+
+Atchison, Sir Charles, 191
+
+Australian Effort, 177
+
+Avatar, 79
+
+Banerjee, Kali Churn, 295, 316
+
+Banerjee, Dr. K. M., 316
+
+Banerjee, Surendra Nath, 51
+
+Baptism—shall it be administered immediately upon confession? 290
+
+Baptism—shall it be administered secretly? 291
+
+Baptism—shall ladies administer? 292
+
+Baptists, American, 292, 309
+
+Barth, 69, 82, 94
+
+Basil Mission, 285
+
+Benevolence of Native Christians, 225
+
+Besant, Mrs. Annie, 344
+
+Bhagavada Gita, 96, 124
+
+Bhakti, Doctrine of, 76
+
+Bible—Influence of, 90
+
+Bible, Translated, 178, 301
+
+Bowen, Rev. George, 202
+
+Brâhm, 84
+
+Brahmo Somaj, 349
+
+Buddha, The, 59
+
+Buddhism, 54
+
+Burma, 181
+
+Canadian Effort, 188
+
+Carey, William, 173
+
+Caste, 26-107, 124
+
+Caste and Government, 340
+
+Caste in the Church, 131, 171, 270, 271
+
+Ceremonialism, 121, 122
+
+Chaitanya, 65
+
+Character of Native Christians, 320
+
+Child Marriages, 25, 154
+
+Christian Community, The, 307
+
+Christian Science, 293
+
+Christian Schools, 354
+
+Christianity and Hinduism Contrasted, 80
+
+Chunder Sen, 150
+
+Church Missionary Society, 174
+
+Clarke, Dr. W. N., 267
+
+Climates of India, 14
+
+Comparison of present and past Methods of Work, 188
+
+Comparative Religion, 209
+
+Contrast of the two Faiths, 88
+
+Contrast of the two Races, 46
+
+Converts—from what Social Strata? 315
+
+Coöperation among Missions, 238
+
+Coronation Address of Indian Christians, 86
+
+Credentials of Hinduism and Christianity, 183
+
+Danish, 173
+
+Demonolatry, 63
+
+Denmark, 168
+
+Direction of Missions, 234
+
+Discipling the Nations, 266
+
+Dress and Food of the Missionary, 199
+
+Du Bois, The Abbe, 200, 201
+
+Dravidians, 15
+
+Drink Evil, The, 42
+
+Duff, Alexander, 175
+
+Dutch, 178
+
+Dutt, Toru, 322
+
+East and West, 297
+
+East India Company, 176, 180, 360
+
+Eastern Thought, 141
+
+Economic Conditions, 18
+
+Economic Problems, 282
+
+Educated Classes and Christ, 357
+
+Educated Classes and Western Thought, 353, 356
+
+Education, 27, 193, 248, 277, 280
+
+Education of Christians, its Extent, 281
+
+Emancipation of Woman, 159
+
+English Missions, 175
+
+Eschatology, 75
+
+Ethnic Faith, 109
+
+European Effort in India, 178
+
+Evangelistic Department, 242
+
+Evolution, 264
+
+Exclusive Spirit of Christianity, 108
+
+Faith Missions, 231
+
+“Failure of Missions,” 298
+
+Fairbairn, Dr., 121
+
+Family Life, 24
+
+Famine, 21
+
+Fatalism, 122
+
+Frederick IV, King, 168
+
+Gautama, 59
+
+God, Doctrine of, 81
+
+Goreh, Miss, 322
+
+Government, The Educational Department of, 278
+
+Government of India, 37
+
+Government Service, 34
+
+Grain of India, 15
+
+Hall, Stanley President, 281
+
+Haskell-Barrows Lectureship, 186
+
+Harris, Lord, 187
+
+Harrison, Ex-President Benjamin, 323
+
+Heavens and Hells of Hinduism, 88
+
+Hindu Character, 125, 128
+
+Hindu Joint Family System, 24, 133
+
+Hinduism, 62
+
+Hinduism Conservative, 107
+
+Hinduism an Ethnic Faith, 109
+
+Hinduism—is it Tolerant? 310
+
+Hinduism Transformed, 341
+
+History of Christianity in India, 163
+
+Hopkins, 69
+
+Humility necessary to the Missionary, 213
+
+Hymnology of India, 302
+
+Ideals of the Two Faiths, 101
+
+Ideals of the Hindu, 118
+
+Incarnation, 72, 94
+
+Independent Work of Indian Christians, 326
+
+Individualism in Missions, 236
+
+Industrial Mission, 179
+
+Industrial Problems, 282
+
+Infanticide, 158
+
+Influence of Woman in India, 148
+
+Inter-caste Marriages, 274
+
+Irrigation Schemes, 22
+
+Islam, The New, 345
+
+Jaffna Mission, 182
+
+Jones, Sir William, 82
+
+Jordanus, 166
+
+Judaism, 55
+
+Judson, Adoniram, 181
+
+Kali, 66
+
+Kalki Avatar, 78
+
+Karma, 92
+
+Kipling, Rudyard, 212
+
+Languages, 16
+
+Last Commission of our Lord, 265
+
+Laws of India Changed, 337
+
+Leaven of Christianity, 332
+
+Leipzig Lutheran Mission, 178
+
+Length of Missionary Service, 203
+
+Lex talionis, 111
+
+Life of the Missionary, 197
+
+Literacy, 27
+
+Literary Work, 252
+
+Literature, Christian, 301
+
+London Missionary Society, 174
+
+Love—a Missionary Qualification, 213
+
+Lyall, Sir Alfred, 63
+
+Macedonian Cry, 219
+
+Mackensie, Sir Alexander, 320
+
+Madras Native Christian Association, 324
+
+Madura Mission, 182, 325
+
+Magna Charta of Missions, 180
+
+Mahabarata, 144
+
+Mahratta Mission, 181
+
+Man, Doctrines concerning, 85
+
+Manu, Code, 108
+
+Marriage among Hindus, 156
+
+Martyn, Henry, 174
+
+Mass Movements, 308, 346
+
+Matheson, Dr., 70
+
+McKinley, President, 336
+
+Medical Work, 255
+
+Metempsychosis, 97
+
+Methodist, American, 184, 309
+
+Miller, Dr. William, 299, 355
+
+Mills, Samuel, 179
+
+Mission Administration, 286
+
+Mission Agents, 304
+
+Mission of Great Britain in India, 45
+
+Mission Enterprise as a Christian Principle, 230
+
+Mission Schools, 29, 277
+
+Missionary, The, 193
+
+Missionary and the Mission, 222
+
+Missionary and Missionary Societies, 219
+
+Missionary Appliances, 300
+
+Missionary’s Attitude towards the Non-Christian World, 215
+
+Missionary as an Organizer, 224
+
+Missionary Organization, 228
+
+Missionary Results, 298
+
+Missionary Societies, 228
+
+Missionary Success—What is it? 298
+
+Mohammedanism, 56, 345
+
+Moral Standards of Christianity and Hinduism, 110
+
+Morality and Piety, 135
+
+Motive of Missionary, 215, 265
+
+Motives of Christian Converts, 312
+
+Mozumdar, Protab, 350
+
+Muir, Sir W., 191
+
+Müller, Max, 67
+
+Multiplication of Missionary Activities, 284
+
+National Congress, 34
+
+Native Christian, 126
+
+Native Christian Character, 130
+
+Native Christian Community, 307, 318
+
+Native Christian Women, 320
+
+Native Church and Evangelism, 244
+
+Native Officials—Their Attitude Towards Mission Schools, 279
+
+Native States, 39
+
+Neo-Hinduism, 344
+
+Newcastle, Bishop of, 330
+
+New Converts, 288
+
+New Religious Movements in India, 348
+
+Obscenity in the East, 126, 340
+
+Offerings of Native Christians, 325
+
+Opium Traffic, 42
+
+Organic Structure of a Mission, 240
+
+Organizations of the Native Church, 259
+
+Oriental Christianity, 296
+
+Origin of Hinduism, 70
+
+Pantænus, 164
+
+Parseeism, 57
+
+Passive Virtues of India, 127
+
+Pastoral Work in Missions, 245
+
+Path of Works, 121
+
+Patience, an Equipment of the Missionary, 212
+
+“Patriot, The Christian,” 325
+
+Pax Britanica, 44
+
+People of India, 15
+
+Persecution, 309, 315
+
+Pessimism of Hinduism, 89
+
+Physical Features of India, 13
+
+Physical Fitness of the Missionary, 194
+
+Plato, 90
+
+Plutscho, 167
+
+Political Condition of India, 31
+
+Polygamous Converts, 288
+
+Poverty of Christians, 312
+
+Poverty of the Land, 19
+
+Prakriti, 85
+
+Prartanei Somaj, 349
+
+Preaching to the Heathen—Its Character, 245
+
+Prepossessions of a Hindu, 116
+
+Presbyterian Mission, 182
+
+Problems, Missionary, 263
+
+Problems Concerning New Converts, 288
+
+Products of Christianity and Hinduism, 114
+
+Profanity, East and West, 126
+
+Progressive Spirit of Christianity, 108
+
+Property of Missions in India, 300
+
+Protestant Christian Effort, 166
+
+Provincial Governments, 39
+
+Puranas, 94, 105, 343
+
+Railroads in India, 22
+
+Ramabai, Pandita, 321, 327
+
+Ramanuja, 66
+
+Reactionary Spirit in India, 293, 295
+
+Religions of India, 54
+
+Religious Instruction in Mission Schools, 280
+
+Religious Mendicancy, 20, 120
+
+Religious Toleration, 54, 109
+
+Rest and Recreation for Missionaries, 195
+
+Results, Missionary, 298, 332
+
+Revival of Thought in India, 293
+
+Right of the Christian Church to Send Missionaries, 264
+
+Rivers of India, 14
+
+Robert de Nobilibur, 167
+
+Robson, Dr., 72, 344
+
+Roman Catholic Effort in India, 165
+
+Roman Catholics and Caste, 271
+
+Rural People, Hindus a, 18
+
+Saivism, 64
+
+Sakti Worship, 66
+
+Salvation Army, 176, 200
+
+Sanskrit, 16
+
+Sattianathan, Mrs., 323
+
+Schools for Christian Children, 249
+
+Schools for Non-Christians, 248
+
+Schools, Mission, 303
+
+Schultze, 169
+
+Schwartz, 170
+
+Scottish Missions, 175
+
+Self-Extension of the Native Church, 260
+
+Self-Government of the Native Church, 32, 259
+
+Self-Support of the Native Church, 261, 274
+
+Sell, Dr. E., 345
+
+Serampore, 173
+
+Shanars, 308
+
+Sherring, Rev., 171
+
+Sikhism, 61
+
+Sin, Hindu and Christian Conception of, 89
+
+Singh, Sir Harnam, 317
+
+Sita, 145
+
+Slater, Rev. G. T. E., 357
+
+Social Life in India, 23, 26
+
+Sorabjis, The, 322
+
+Soul, Doctrine of, 86
+
+S. P. C. K., 170
+
+S. P. G., 172
+
+“Spirit of Islam,” 345
+
+Spirituality of Hinduism, 74
+
+Spiritual Qualifications of the Missionary, 210
+
+Statistics, Religious, 55
+
+Strachey, Sir John, 159
+
+Study of Christian Missions, 267
+
+Supreme Soul, 86
+
+Survival of the Fittest, 264
+
+Syrian Church of Malabar, 165
+
+Tamil Bible, 178
+
+Tantras, 105, 343
+
+Taxation in India, 40
+
+Telegu Baptist Mission, 309
+
+Theological Seminaries, 244
+
+Theology of the Missionary, 205
+
+Theosophy, 293
+
+Thoburn, Bishop, 185, 206, 277, 309
+
+Thomas, St., 163
+
+Tinnevelly Mission, 308
+
+Toleration, Religious, 310
+
+Townsend, Meredith, 335
+
+Training of the Missionary, 204
+
+Tranquebar, 167
+
+Triad, Hindu, 65
+
+Turanians of South India, 316
+
+Universe, Doctrine of the, 84
+
+Vaishnava Sects, 65
+
+Vaishnavism, 65
+
+Vasco da Gama, 166
+
+Vedantism, 67
+
+Vernaculars of India and the Missionary, 208
+
+Vicarious Atonement, 73
+
+Webb, Rev. E., 302
+
+Wifely Devotion, 145
+
+Williams, Sir Monier, 85
+
+Wilson, Dr., 176
+
+Witness Bearing, 266
+
+Women of India, 143, 147, 151, 320
+
+Women of India, their Disabilities, 152
+
+Women in Missionary Organization, 237
+
+Work for Women, 256
+
+Xavier, 166
+
+Yesuthasan, 302
+
+Yoga, 93, 119
+
+Young, Work for the, 185, 257, 329
+
+Young, Sir William Mackworth, 227
+
+Ziegenbalg, 167
+
+
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES
+
+
+    1 Some of these, doubtless, are only well-developed dialects. Many
+      other, more imperfect, dialects might be added to this total.
+
+    2 The extensive famines of the last few years have reduced this
+      increase to two and one half per cent. during the last decade.
+
+    3 This subject is treated more fully in later chapters.
+
+    4 The rupee is at present one-third of a dollar.
+
+    5 Nearly all these Buddhists live in Burma which is included in these
+      statistics because it is now politically a part of India.
+
+    6 According to the census of 1901 there were 2,923,349 Christians.
+
+    7 “The Religions of India,” p. 562.
+
+    8 “The Religions of India,” p. 288.
+
+    9 “The Religions of India,” page 83.
+
+   10 Sir John Strachey’s “India,” page 311.
+
+   11 I speak vaguely because it is hard to definitely declare what a
+      missionary society is.
+
+   12 The returns for Congregationalists do not include the members of the
+      London Missionary Society Missions,—these being, apparently,
+      included among the “Scattering.”
+
+   13 See Toronto Convention Report of Student Volunteer Movement, p. 378.
+
+   14 Hinduism and Christianity, page 248.
+
+   15 See Dr. Sell’s article, “The New Islam,” in _Contemporary Review_,
+      August, 1893.
+
+   16 “The Higher Hinduism in Relation to Christianity,” page 291. This
+      valuable book has only just been published after my manuscript was
+      written.
+
+
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INDIA’S PROBLEM KRISHNA OR CHRIST***
+
+
+
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