India's Problem, Krishna or Christ Part 12

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 cla.s.s 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 Inst.i.tution-the Haskell-Barrows lectures.h.i.+p-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 G.o.d'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 G.o.d and the salvation of India's men of culture.

It is comforting to the American worker in India to be a.s.sured 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 a.s.sist us in doing that which is almost impossible for any government to achieve una.s.sisted. 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 grat.i.tude 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 cooperation of Protestant Canada in this work. Several missions have been established there by Canadian Baptists and Presbyterians; and these are flouris.h.i.+ng 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 a.s.surance 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 subst.i.tuted 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 fellows.h.i.+p, of comity, amity and mutual helpfulness among the missionaries of that land. The watchword of to-day is cooperation. The distracting spectacle of a divided Christianity, of hated and mutually hating Christian sects in a heathen land is surely pa.s.sing away and the dawning of the day of peace and harmony and fellows.h.i.+p 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 G.o.d'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 ill.u.s.trates 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Village Christian Church, South India.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 inst.i.tutions, 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 inst.i.tutions, 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 G.o.d, 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 G.o.d'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 a.s.surance we thank G.o.d.

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 n.o.ble 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 preeminently, _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 compet.i.tion 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 cla.s.s 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 preeminently 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 n.o.ble 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.dsend. 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 circ.u.mstances, 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 const.i.tutes a testimony and a power which no mission can be without.