India's Problem, Krishna or Christ Part 23

These are healthy movements, away from a general, old-fas.h.i.+oned view of religious things. Take, for example, the Brahmo Somaj. Though not as large in members.h.i.+p 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 leaders.h.i.+p 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 members.h.i.+p 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 leaders.h.i.+p 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 reexamine and purify and reform every part of my existence. The Spirit of G.o.d 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 compet.i.tions, 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. G.o.d is the primary source of all true knowledge.

2. G.o.d is perfect in all His attributes and should be wors.h.i.+pped.

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 a.s.sumed the aspect of a sect of Hinduism. But some of its fundamental contentions are so directly antagonistic to most cherished inst.i.tutions 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 cooperation 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 subst.i.tute. 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 cla.s.ses 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 inst.i.tutions 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 superst.i.tion 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 accomplis.h.i.+ng 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 inst.i.tutions, in the work of undermining and destroying vain credulity and the whole brood of superst.i.tions 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 enn.o.ble 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 G.o.d'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 n.o.ble missionary educator has wrought mightily, through his great inst.i.tution 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 grat.i.tude 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 cla.s.s in India. We have considered already its att.i.tude of mind towards the supplanting religion of Jesus.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Madras Christian College.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 att.i.tude 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 pa.s.s 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 att.i.tude 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 wors.h.i.+p 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 wors.h.i.+p, 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 pa.s.s 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 inst.i.tutions of that land, we find large encouragement and a rich a.s.surance 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 att.i.tude 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 st.u.r.dy 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.