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diff --git a/27270-0.txt b/27270-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..87a850f --- /dev/null +++ b/27270-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10837 @@ +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. 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