India's Problem, Krishna or Christ Part 11

(_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 G.o.d'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 G.o.d'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 G.o.d'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 pa.s.sed 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 pa.s.sion among them.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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, G.o.d 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 cla.s.s.

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 preeminent 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 a.s.sociates, Marshman and Ward, he built up a Christian community and translated and published the Word of G.o.d 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 n.o.ble 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 preeminence in the task of transforming the thought and of leavening the inst.i.tutions 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, a.s.sistant 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 pa.s.sion 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 ill.u.s.trates 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 a.s.sociates 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 partic.i.p.ation 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 n.o.ble 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 antic.i.p.ation 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 G.o.d 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 princ.i.p.al 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 Lah.o.r.e, 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 surpa.s.ses 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 G.o.d in the conversion of the people. Nearly all of these converts have come from the lowest cla.s.s of society. But at present the higher cla.s.ses are beginning to consider the claims of the Gospel. It is natural that the most serious problem and princ.i.p.al 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 inst.i.tutions 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 cla.s.s. 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 st.u.r.dy 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.