WORK AMONG THE DEPRESSED ~ 
 
 CLASSES AND THE MASSES, 
 
 BY 
 J. Fv BURDIPFT, 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Ginerican Bapttest Celugu Mission, 
 
 BOMBAY ! 
 IiNTED AT THE 
 EDUCATION SOCIETY’S STHAM PRESS, 
 
 1893, 
 
 97 | 
 
PREFACE. 
 ae 
 
 Rev. J. E, Clough, D.D., whose wide experience im this work 
 
 a 
 i 
 
 peculiarly fitted him for the duty, was selected by the Provisional 
 Committee of the Decennial Conference to prepare a paper on this 
 subject. 
 
 Finding himself so engaged in America as’ to be unable to comply, 
 the writer, then about to return to this country, was reluctantly per- 
 suaded to attempt the task, in his place, and intended to present am 
 abbreviated form of this paper, though prepared under great disadvan- 
 tages, at the Conference in Bombay. During the period of the 
 voyage, however, a change in the programme gave an entirely new 
 limit tothe range of topic, and arrival in India just before the Con- 
 ference, left no opportunity prior to’ the meetings for readjustment and 
 subsequent printing. Hence it is issued in its present form, and 
 respectfully submitted to all imterested in the development of this 
 great movement, 
 
WORK AMONG THE DEPRESSED CLASSES 
 AND THE MASSES. 
 
 The cry “ Cui bono?” may still assail some branches of our mani- 
 fold missionary effort. Certain departments may still have to plod 
 uneasily through the slough of adverse criticism, but the cause of 
 Foreign Missions as a whole has triumphed, and the preaching of 
 “the Glorious Gospel of the blessed God which was committed to our 
 trust,” to those who are helpless, and hopeless, and ready to perish, is 
 surely, the very acme of all true mission work. Such work no longer 
 needs advocacy or defence, yet, in contemplating some features of our 
 *‘work among the depressed classes,” a brief reference to the high 
 privileges of those engaged in this service may pardonably precede 
 some consideration as to its prosecution, and some speculation as to its 
 prospects. 
 
 Among these privileges, we are permitted the soul-satisfying con- 
 sciousness, that tz this we pre-eminentiy follow a divine pattern. 
 The promised Messiah was to be one “‘anointed to preach good tidings 
 ‘to the meek, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the 
 captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound . 
 to comfort all that mourn,” 
 
 And to the enquiry of John the Baptist as to whether indeed the 
 Messiah had come, the answering proof reaches its grand climax in 
 the assurance “the poor have the Gospel preached unto them.” Chris 
 came ‘to seek and to save that which was lost,” and though the self- 
 righteous Pharisee rejected the blessing of Him who “ came not te call 
 the righteous but sinners to repentance’ Jesus passed on and “when 
 he saw the multitude ,was moved with compassion on them, because 
 PUEVE oh sae), WETE LL.) . . as sheep having no shepherd.” 
 
 This leader, who Himself had not where to lay His head in a world 
 through Him created, teaches, that in the light of eternal issues, the 
 poor in spirit, the meek, the mourning ones are blessed. He intimates 
 in precept and parable “how hardly shall they that have riches enter 
 into the kingdom of God.” He ejaculates in fervent prayer the “I 
 thank thee, Father of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these 
 things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them unto babes,” 
 
4 
 
 Time passes and the great apostle voices the same refrain, as with the 
 Master’s own spirit, he perceives without shame or dismay, that “ not 
 many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are 
 called.” From the outset the Gospel appears to find its prime 
 objective point, its magnetic pole, among the poor, the lowly, the 
 oppressed, and the outeaste. And if again this earth were trod by-the 
 blessed feet of the Son of God can we doubt that far beyond. the 
 confines of the rich, respectable, self-satisfied upper classes, He would 
 press with yearning compassion, and His voice of infinite tenderness 
 would be heard again crying to the most sinful, and wretched, and 
 lost, “Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy-laden and J 
 will give you rest,” 
 
 Then the privilege of engaging in this work is enhanced by the 
 fact that tn this we seek to meet an exceptional need. All need 
 salvation, “There is none righteous, no, not one.’’ But the 
 higher classes, even in heathen lands, by their culture, philosophy, 
 and general enlightenment, are placed in a measure much in the 
 position of rejectors of Christ in lands nominally Christian. They, 
 to a great extent, wilfully shut their eyes against the light. But 
 ‘‘where there is no vision the people perish’’ hopelessly, helplessly, 
 and sunk in darkest depths of suffering, superstition, and sin, 
 
 Brahmins themselves testify to the fact plain to every experienced 
 worker, that there is no chance for the Pariah to obtain in Hinduism 
 any of the religious, social, or intellectual opportunities possible even 
 through it to other heathen. A Brahmin writes, ‘‘ No one welcomes a 
 Pariah or asks him to take shelter under his roof. . . No one feels 
 bound to speak kindly to him. No one will go out of his way to give 
 him food. Many a hard stick has been broken upon his back; many a 
 time has he had to curse the day he was born. His children are not 
 entitled to study at the public schools. He cannot get a drop of water 
 from a Hindu village. He is regarded as undeserving of charity... 
 he must ever be illiterate. He must serve everybody, and as a reward 
 for his pains be treated to contempt and isolation.’ Such is their 
 abject condition. Yet who will say that their souls are not as pre- 
 cious in God’s sight as those of the highest. It is sadly true, indeed, 
 that there is but little good in Hinduism for any class, but the wor- 
 ship of the higher castes is at léast as a rule outwardly decent. 
 Their abstinence and self-restraint are proverbial, They are usually 
 keen, cleanly, and courteous. Neither their theories nor their practices 
 
5 
 
 are wholly debasing, they have far more light than they use, and can 
 easily obtain more light than they have. But who that knows any- 
 thing of the devil-dancing, devil-driving, devil-possession, bloody 
 sacrifices and abominable sunkya rites of the lower classes ; their 
 pitiful subjection to omens, superstitions and medical atrocities ; who 
 that knows of their ignorance, poverty, sicknesses, oppression, and 
 despair, but must feel his heart yearn within him with desire, 
 to pluck as brands from the burning some of these deluded ones 
 whose whole life is subject to bondage? 
 
 Then as a further privilege we have in this work the joyous satis- 
 Faction of finding an cpen door and a cordial reception. 
 
 The commission recorded in the tenth Chapter of Matthew, doubt- 
 less referred to a special Mission, at a special time, to a special people, 
 for a special purpose, and need not regulate our action for all time; 
 yet the spirit of it may still impel us to press our message where most 
 effective ‘along the line of least resistance’ upon the accessible, rather 
 than upon the repellent. Jesus did not many mighty works in 
 Capernaum because of their unbelief. When the Jews at Antioch 
 in Pisidia opposed themselves Paul and Barnabas said : “ Seeing ye 
 put it from you and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo 
 we turn unto the Gentiles,” and they shook off the dust of their feet 
 against them and came to Iconium. Rejected there, they “ fled unto 
 Lystra and Derbe. ” At Corinth, “ when they opposed themselves 
 and blasphemed”’ he shook his raiment and said unto them, ‘ Your 
 blood be upon your heads : Iam clear, from henceforth I will go 
 unto the Gentiles.” Have we sufficient force in India to-day to 
 warrant us in departing from this great principle of conserving our 
 powers for the greatest, most persistent effort where the Holy Spirit 
 indicates a soil prepared of God? Among whatever class this oppor- 
 tunity may occur let us strenuously enter in, but we cannot afford to 
 continue year after year pleading with stony-hearted heathen of any 
 class, while multitudes more likely to accept the truth perish without 
 once having heard the good glad news. Yet the high-born as 
 of old reject the message while ‘the common people hear him 
 gladly.” Again and again has it become true that they that were 
 first bidden “ made light of it and went their ways,’ while from the 
 highways and hedges the outcastes press into the gospel feast, 
 Bishop Thoburn voices the testimony of many workers when he says 
 in regard to great accessions from the low-easte people. ‘ We did not 
 
6 
 
 choose this kind of work... . . we should probably have been 
 better pleased if our first door of access to the people had been opened 
 among a more respectable class. But we were led as God’s people 
 often are in a way that we knew not, and the work which we now have, 1 
 one which has been thrust upon us rather than chosen by us.” The 
 American Baptist Telugu Mission has passed through a similar experi- 
 ence. Initsearly history schools were started attended mainly by high- 
 caste boys. Later on, when in 1866 Dr. Clough first entered upon the 
 work in Ongole, he had daily religious conversations with Brahmins who 
 seemed interested and impressed by the truths and claims of Chris- 
 tianity, But while these hesitated, and prevaricated, and delayed, the 
 lowcaste Madigas came pressing their way into the kingdom. Some 
 had cast away their idols, and professing faith in Christ, asked for 
 Baptism, ‘the Brahmins said, “if you receive these filthy people we 
 can see you no more.” The Missionaries prayed and sought in the 
 Word for guidance, and came from the presence clamber able to say 
 to the Brahmins in effect if not in Peter's own words, “God hath 
 showed me that I should not call any man common or unclean.” 
 Thus the die was cast, the Rubicon crossed, and though the bondage 
 of the caste-system has hitherto circumscribed, not our efforts, but our 
 tangible results, mainly to the depressed classes, we rejoice that we 
 have been.granted among these a great and real success, rather than 
 x perpetually hypothetical one among people of higher social standing. 
 
 To these poor neglected ones the Gospel message comes as the 
 first ray of hope they have ever known. They lisien eagerly and 
 multitudes accept and obey the Gospel, and to be instrumental not 
 only in inspiring these down-trodden ones with new hopes and new 
 purposes for the life that now is, but in leading them by hundreds 
 to the feet of Jesus to lay hold of life eternal, is a privilege beside 
 which the ambitions of earth pale into insignificance. 
 
 Have then, those who have enjoyed so great privileges no new 
 light to givein regard to Methods of prosecuting work for the Depressed 
 Classes. Apparently fruitless labour has led many a weary toiler to 
 sigh for the revelation of some improved plan of action by which speedy 
 results may be achieved. Hence whena Mission has at least numerically 
 enjoyed phenomenal success, questions as to whether, after all, there is 
 no royal road, and quasi-explanations, not always either flattering or 
 just, are not uncommon. It may therefore prove a disillusion to state 
 that the American Baptist Telugu Mission has discovered nothing 
 
" 
 
 better than the old methods of preaching to the people, and caring 
 for the Christiaus, and that we hold that neither large accessions nor 
 any other development could justify us in deviating in essential 
 principles of action from New Testament teachings and example. 
 
 The class of people, their environment, providential circumstances, 
 &e., have doubtless contributed incidentally to produce these results, 
 but in eur approach to the conflict with heathenism we still take our 
 marching orders from the great commission. Both Missionaries and 
 native assistants look upon the simple presentation of the gospel every 
 day, everywhere, to every one, through all the teeming villages of the 
 land, as our main and most important work. School work, training 
 of native assistants, all else follows this, and leads again to this. That 
 this is our simple plan, and in view of some misconception to set fo-th 
 that ‘‘the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through 
 God to the pulling down of strongholds,” a few explicit statement 
 
 seem necessary :— 
 
 (a) Our great ingatherings had not been due fo special know- 
 ledge of and utéacks upon Hinduism. Mr. Clough had no sooner 
 arrived in the country than he set himself to commit to me- 
 mory certain gospel texts. As soon as he could enunciate 
 John iii, 16, he went about repeating it, adding daily to his 
 quiver, that he who runs and cannot read might still run to 
 him and hear. He literally laid hold of the “Sword of the Spirit ” 
 and the gospel without much language, proved more effective 
 than much language without the gospel. This early experience 
 has influenced all his future labours, and indirectly that of 
 others, for Dr. Clough is still of opinion that the Jess we irri- 
 tate the heathen by attacks upon their ancient religion, and 
 the more we exalt Christ, and him crucified, the better. 
 
 The value of a knowledge of Hinduism is however recogniz - 
 ed, and may at times, especially with this class, be effectively 
 used, without offence. 
 
 (6) Our ingatherings have not been due to the inducement of 
 secular advantages. Some missionaries of sister societies have 
 been quoted as saying*“I do not believe the people hereabout 
 will come to us unless we can hold out some worldly motive to 
 
 # Of. ‘ Harvest Field,” November 1889, 
 
8 
 
 them.” ‘“ We have often helped purely heathen cultivators 
 
 . . » The people could not understand the meaning of a 
 heavenly Canaan so I had to knock the idea into them by 
 trying to make their earthly one better.” ‘ Let them come 
 for any reason: The Lord will work in their hearts afterwards.” 
 It is beyond the province of this paper to verify, criticise, or 
 condemn these statements. It would also be vain to assure 
 ourselves that none of our own converts come from mixed, or 
 perhaps even purely worldly motives. Suffice i¢ to say that 
 we do not intentionally hold out the inducement of any secular 
 benefit whatever, and if the examination of candidates for bap- 
 tism elicited the existence of such motives, care would be 
 taken to eradicate them or to reject candidates still cherishing 
 such expectations. 
 
 (c) Our ingatherings have not been due per se to gratitude 
 for famine relief. Since at the time of the great famine our 
 missionaries were drafted with others into eleemosynary life- 
 saving effort, some have concluded that the aid then given 
 was the ‘fons et origo’ of our Pentecostal ingathering, But 
 accessions prior to the famine were all ready for that stage of 
 development, large, continuous, and _ ever-increasing. 
 Converts, without reckoning their children, even then numbered 
 over three thousand, and, had the normal state of affairs 
 continued, large additions might reasonably have been 
 expected during the same period of time. Yet during the con- 
 tinuance of the famine converts were not received, and baptism 
 was not administered. The famine however afforded an 
 opportunity for concentrated special effort under favorable circum- 
 stances not thrown away. When a contract for excavating 
 a portion of the Buckingham Canal put into Dr. Clough’s 
 hands the means of giving employment and subsistence to 
 famine-stricken multitudes, Christians and heathen alike flocked 
 to the work. Many were for the first time free from the 
 restraints and serfdom of their village feudalism, A new era 
 dawned uponthem, They found themselves during their daily 
 toil superintended by men who neither drank, nor swore, nor 
 beat them, nor called them names, nor cheated them out of 
 their just wages. Here was a new thing in their hard lives, 
 At night the same men who had so kindly directed their labour, 
 
9 
 
 gathered them together in the thronging camps and sang and 
 spoke of the friend and saviour of sinners and prayed in their 
 behalf to the great unseea God whom they called the Father, and 
 giver of rain and every blessing. When at last the rain came> 
 and after months of faithful teaching, these weary pilgrims 
 through the waste howling wilderness, beheld the land once 
 more being clothed with verdure before them, what wonder that 
 they wished to trust, and obey, and love the Christian’s God ; 
 “‘ For their rock is not as our rock, our enemies themselves 
 being judges.” The ingatherings which followed amounting 
 to nearly 10,000 during the remainder of 1878, were but what 
 men of faith ought to expect from such labour under such 
 circumstances, preceded as it had been by years of seed 
 sowing. 
 
 (d) Our ingatherings have not been due to a spasmodtc, evanes- 
 cent movement. At the time men may have predicted re- 
 action and disaster. But fourteen vears have passed away: 
 and those then received have stood well ever since wherever in any 
 dezree adequately looked after, Many became faithful wit- 
 nesses and demonstrations of the power of the gospel. Their 
 children have been taught in our schools. From among them 
 have come able preachers, and teachers, and the work has gone 
 on ever since, widening and expanding, with constant accessions, 
 amounting without the concomitant of special circumstances to 
 the nnmber of nearly eight thousand in the year 1891 alone. 
 
 (e) Our ingatherings have not been due to departure from original 
 principles. We see no reason why the standard should not be 
 the same for the many as for the few, and though accessions 
 have sometimes reached proportions such as merit the desig- 
 nation ‘‘Mass movements;” though under such circum- 
 stances the missionary cannot give such careful personal 
 attention to the examination of each candidate as when there 
 are few, and must relegate this duty more entirely to the care 
 of our worthy Cis-Alpine assistants; though God alone can 
 read the heart, and under any circumstances and after the 
 utmost care, we may be mistaken or deceived ; yet personal 
 examination of each individual candidate, to ascertain so far 
 as possible that the applicant has not only renounced idolatry, 
 but repented of sin and personally trusted in Christ for sal- 
 
10 
 
 vation, has never been dispensed with. The addition of a 
 vast number is still with us the addition of a number of 
 individuals, each singly and personally professing repentance 
 toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 (7) Our ingatherings have not been due to urging baptism upon 
 the people. Opposed ourselves to‘the doctrine of baptismal 
 regeneration ; we persuade men to come to Christ and say 
 little of baptism to the heathen. On the other hand we have 
 no stated term of probation, Candidates who give no satis- 
 factory evidence of conversion or who are hampered by 
 marital or other disabilities, are necessarily deferred or re- 
 jected altogether, But we see no scriptural warrant for 
 anduly delaying the baptism of one who appears to be a 
 genuine Christian, simply because the application is new. To 
 do so might greatly retard and discourage the work. The 
 conversion itself may be in no sense new, ‘The convert may 
 long have heard the gospel, and been a secret believer before 
 taking the bold step of public confession, which he might 
 reasonably expect would be welcomed by the saints on earth 
 with a joy akin to that over his repentance among the angels 
 in heaven. 
 
 Probation under such circumstances niust be a sad disappointment 
 to the convert himself.’ Hindus usually accept the accomplished fact 
 with what grace they may, but the probationer must be peculiarly 
 exposed to the taunts, persecutions, and blandishments, of alarmed 
 and enraged relatives and priests. During that brief interval they 
 lelieve they must prevent the dreaded consummation or suffer 
 brrevocable disgrace. ; 
 
 Meantime the convert, deprived largely of the moral support and 
 settled determination which thorough identification with the 
 Christian community would give, is further depressed by the pain- 
 ful suspicion that even the Christians do not wholly trust him. 
 Such a probation moreover must be very discouraging to other 
 inquirers who perhaps intended to follow had the first been received. 
 When they behold the purgatory through which the candidate 
 must pass, Some may turn back entirely, others may, through this 
 alone, be led to fall in with the tendency to secret discipleship, 
 persuading themselves that if the confessors must, for a period, 
 remain unbaptized and unidentified with the Church, there can be 
 
 ’ 
 
11 
 
 little objection to a self-constituted perpetual probation, whereby 
 without confession one may both worship the Christian’s God, and 
 vet continue to enjoy the position of a member of Hindu society. 
 
 Further, a hard and fast rule as to probation would seem 
 likely to be very disheartening to the (faithful preacher 
 by whom the convert has been bronght to decision, If 
 the evanvelist, after all his labours in leading the candidate 
 to decide for Christ finds that he is actually received, and baptised: 
 he will return to his work with alacrity, possibly accompanied by 
 the rejoicing convert asa witness and object-lesson, at all events 
 with the joyous consciousness of soul-winuing; but the taskof work- 
 ing on and on, with the knowledge that his own utmost success 
 must lead to placing a few more in the tribulation and jeopardy of 
 this equivocal position, perhaps at last to end in nothing, is not 
 likely to beget much zealand enthusiasm. While therefore we require 
 conversion as a pre-requisite to baptism and membership, we do not 
 impose on all alike a fixed period of probation, kut receive without 
 long delay such as appear from the testimony of those who know 
 them, and from their own statements, to be genuine Christians. 
 
 Possibly the avoidance of so much that is depressing in the other 
 system and the enthusiasm enkindled by this, may have something 
 to do with the rapid progress in our work; but if in this we differ 
 from some other societies, our missionaries are not alone in testifying 
 that the general record of those so received is not inferior to that of 
 those whose baptism has been delayed. 
 
 Our great business therefore before conversion is the simple 
 preaching of the gospel with all the versatility, attractiveness, 
 wealth of illustration, analogy, argument, persuasion, and unction 
 we can possibly command, and of training men with that end 
 in view. But after conversion comes the scarcely, less important 
 work of Caring for the Christians. The subsequent career and 
 advancement of the convert depends painfully on the measures taken 
 for his after edification and watch-care, and this, so far as we are 
 able to compass it, is a matter of our utmost concern. For the most 
 part illiterate at conversion, it is still our duty to “ teach them to 
 observe all things whatsoever Christ has commanded us.” To this 
 end primary schools are established in every village where there 
 are a few converts. The teacher so far as possible supported by 
 the people, but as yet usually aided tothe extent of one to three 
 
be 
 
 rupees a month; not only teaches their children to read and write, 
 to sing and pray, but acts as pastor for. the village in which he 
 lives, If he comes up to our expectation, he holds a simple prayer and 
 praise service each evening which the parents attend; conducts a 
 Sunday School on the Lord’s Day using the Telugu translation of 
 helps on the International Lessons ; and follows with a short service, 
 giving a simple discourse on the golden text of the day’s lesson. It 
 is evident that many of these men take immense pains to fulfil the 
 responsibilities of their postion, and seek devotedly the advancement 
 of the Christians under their care. Some of the brightest and best 
 pupils from these village schools are promoted with their parent’s 
 consent to receive further instruction at the station boarding schools, 
 aud from these a further draft on the principle of the survival of the 
 fittest provides the bulk of our Seminary students and Christian 
 High-School boys. Thus, including all grades a total of some 500 
 schools and 666 teachers were reported in connection with our 
 Telugu work in 1891 ; and though we deplore the general ignorance 
 of our converts and the need of much more being done, we rejoice 
 at the progress already made and that this system has under divine 
 blessing resulted in relapses to heathenism being very few, and in 
 the supply of preachers and teachers and helpers to ‘‘ widen the skirts 
 of light,” being ifas yet very insufficient, yet constant and increasing. 
 
 In the line of self-support development has been slow, but this 
 is not to be wondered at in view of the circumstances. Our people 
 are almost exclusively of one class, and are with few exceptions 
 exceedingly poor. Their heathen neighbours still, to a great extent, 
 partake of meat that has died of itself, of the benefits of stealing, the 
 wages of Sunday labour, the perquisites of the sacrifices, and the 
 wages of children who ought to be in school. Our Christians by 
 renouncing all these, already make considerable sacrifices. They 
 also give much of the labour and material required for the construc- 
 tion of their simple village school houses ; partially, at least, support 
 their teacher; and make some small contributions to the Church 
 collections. Remembering, therefore, their poverty and that ideas 
 of the need of school, &c., are new to them, and that all they do in 
 this way is voluntary, we should not be impatient, nor make invi- 
 dious comparison between these contributions, and those extorted 
 under frightful threats and maledictions by heathen priests. 
 
 But the care of converts does not end with their religious instruction, 
 
13 
 
 nor will the addition of their moral and intellectual advancement 
 alone suffice. Something has been done, infinitely more must be done, 
 for the social uplift of these people. 
 
 If ingatherings from the higher classes be delayed, it is the more 
 imperative, both for the work’s sake and for the people themselves, 
 that we make the very best we can of those whom God has already 
 
 called. 
 
 We need to agitate for their complete emancipation. In remote 
 villages, not only the Pariahs, as a class, but many Christians, are still 
 in practical serfdom. Their wrongs must be ours till ‘* Liberty to the 
 Captive” is proclaimed. The system of yearly agreement between 
 the servant and his master, by which all incentive to spontaneous 
 industry is eliminated, improvidence fostered, injustice facilitated, and 
 religious and moral freedom imperilled, must be abolished, and give 
 place to regular payment of wages at the time, and by the job for all 
 work done. Let them be no longer bond-servants but free men. 
 
 We need to seek improvement in the grade and variety of the occu- 
 pation,so far as this may be practicable in caste-bound India. The 
 taking-up of land and independent cultivation has been encouraged 
 with some success. Something has been done by industrial 
 schools, more should be done in suggesting and facilitating the 
 acquirements of varied common trades, such as will yield an 
 honest living in ordinary villages of India. Nor should we hesitate 
 by suitable preparation to qualify some of these young men for 
 employment in the lower grades of Government departments. Above 
 all, we need to exalt and emphasize continually the «dignity and virtue 
 of honest strenuous toil, and to be careful even in bestowing charity so 
 far as possible to give employment, so as to stimulate industry rather 
 than encourage idleness. 
 
 We need yet more to inculcate thrifty conservation of that which 
 has been acquired. The very poorest not infrequently manifest the 
 most shiftless extravagance. They are by nature sceptical of the 
 ‘stitch in time saves nine’ theory. Be it ours to do what we can to 
 rescue them from the drudgery of their own improvidence. Experience 
 proves that constant protest against carelessness, the use of tobacco 
 and betel-nut, the ruination of debt, and marriage display, is not lost 
 upon them, 7 
 
14 
 
 We need to give attention to sanitation, ‘I'he tendency of regene- 
 rate souls to keep the body and its surroundings pure, is early observ- 
 able, but inheriting as they do traditions and environment so filthy it 
 takes time and patience to evolve that state of things, by which we are 
 enabled eventually to make the contrast between Christian and 
 heathen villages a most satisfactory object-lesson. Nor is regard for 
 the health of the converts and their children an unimportant feature 
 of true Mission-work, or a matter which among people previously so 
 neglected we can be willing to ignore, or afford to neglect. A convert’s 
 life saved, is in the matter of influence, equivalent to a convert gained, 
 plus the progress he has made, Pestilence may by some be white- 
 washed as but a means of postponing the advent of universal over- 
 population and destitution. But our Christians are yet so few and 
 their prolonged mundane existence as witnesses and lights in the 
 world is so highly important, that special effort for the preservation 
 of their health is a sacred duty. 
 
 We need to make provision for their recreation. 
 
 It is not fitting that removed from all the child’s play of their old 
 time heathen festivities, they should be so bereft of all pastime as to 
 give the heathen the wide-spread impression that Christianity is the 
 most melancholy religion in the world. 
 
 By competitive exhibitions and otherwise, something may be done to 
 stimulate musical skil!; the culture of vegetables, fruits, and flowers; 
 variety and taste in handicrafts, &e., while debates, popular lectures, 
 magic lantern entertainments and occasional festivals, may have a still 
 larger place in expanding the mind, and in breaking the monotony of 
 lives too scant of joy. 
 
 While therefore we preach the unsearchable riches of Christ to 
 the heathen, as our foremost duty, our hearts must go out in practical 
 solicitude for those who are His. ‘‘ Let us work that which is good 
 toward all men, especially toward them that are of the household of 
 faith, “seeking to bring to them up into full-grown men to the measure 
 of the stature of the fulness of Christ.”’ 
 
 _ Finally, what seem to be the prospects as regards work among the 
 depressed classes ? 
 
 If not at present all we might wish, enough has been achieved to 
 augur well for the future. 
 
15 
 
 (a) These people seem likely to come in tncreasing numbers. 
 Hinduism and the caste-system have comparatively slight hold 
 upon them, and have no claim to their gratitude or attachment. 
 The fact that there is less for them in Hinduism, and more 
 for them in Christianity than for any other class may be the 
 first perception of the awakening Pariah mind, but it may, 
 rightly directed, lead to noble ends. The work ramifies 
 through families and relatives in a wonderful way, and if we 
 press forward as the opportunity demands, there is reason to 
 beheve that within this generation the bulk of the lower classes 
 may be christianized. 
 
 (b) These people are numerous and everywhere present. Under 
 different names a class of people having the same general 
 characteristics and outcaste condition recur in every part 
 of India amounting in the aggregate, perhaps, to one-tenth of 
 the whole population, 
 
 (c) These people do not limit the work by essentially expersive 
 conditions. Wretchedly poor though many of them are, they 
 are not professional idlers, filled with high-flown ambitions. 
 They are toilers, physically capable of patient endurance of 
 much labour and hardship, whose wants are few. Given any 
 chance at all they can earn their own living independently, and 
 a convert, as a rule, is permitted still to dwell and work at his 
 trade among his own kindred, In this respect they are a happy 
 contrast to converts from high castes, some of whom have 
 no occupation, or are so boycotted as to be driven to cast 
 themselyes on the missionary for financial assistance or 
 employment, a condition prohibitive of extensive development 
 in that line. 
 
 (d) They provide abundant material for the multiplication of 
 Christian workers. This is the great need of every mission, 
 but when, as in work among the lower classes, converts are 
 not only numerous, and teachable, but untiring workers, and 
 accustomed to rough and meagre living, the problem is weil- 
 nigh solved. From among these multitudes of already 
 voluntary witnesses can be recruited, and trained, a great army 
 of efficient agents, willing at comparatively small expense, to 
 devote their whole lives to strenuous evangelistic labour. 
 
16 
 
 (e) They develop uneepected moral and intellectual capacities, 
 Centuries of oppression seem to have stunted rather than 
 distorted and perverted them in these respects. 
 
 Even Brahmins have paid tribute to their natural honesty 
 and faithfulness of character, and some of our boys of low- 
 caste origin have already in our High-School established their 
 intellectual fitness tv compete with Brahmins. 
 
 (7) They are acquiring considerable and advancing social tn- 
 fluence. Reforms and revolutions not seldom come frum the 
 masses. Even the rapid spread of Buddha’s religion has been 
 attributed partly to its adoption by the iowcaste kings of 
 Magadha. The language, laws, and liberties of Saxon Hng- 
 land survived the Norman invasion and the masses eventually 
 absorbed the conquerors to their oblivion. The stamina of the 
 masses, touched by a unifying purpose, prevails at length over 
 the less virile classes. 
 
 (9) They are being transformed by Christianity in a@ way 
 calculated to revolutionize the soctal system. Even that portion 
 of the Christian community drawn from the low castes 
 is becoming better educated, and enlightened, than their 
 heathen neighbours of a higher class. They are levelling 
 up in a way to excite the wonder of the higher castes. 
 Brahmins, even, begin to treat our preachers and teachers 
 as worthy of respect. Slowly, but surely, the Christian 
 community as a whole is rising in the social scale, and 
 this in accordance with a notion not altogether foreign to 
 the Hindu system ; for impossible though it be for an individual 
 to skip from caste to caste, it is no new thing even in India 
 for a whole caste community by temperance, self-restraint, and 
 religious observance to raise itself en masse, at least locally, to a 
 position far in advance of that originally occupied. Some such 
 change of attitude the heathen are constrained to observe in 
 regard to our Christians, Their elevation is an unanswerable 
 argument to the ancient theory that they are utterly unteachable. 
 It protests against the whole selfish disintegrating caste-system 
 based on such hereditary disabilities, and saps its very founda- 
 tions. It leads the Sudras and others when they perceive their 
 superior cleanliness, morality, and religious devotion, to accord 
 them a standing unknown to their heathen state, and question 
 
AY 
 
 whether a faith which has done so much for their slaves has no 
 
 "message of new life for themselves. Even in direct influence 
 they compare not unfavorably with others, for though the 
 conversion of one Brahmin might be expected to outweigh in 
 influence that of many Pariahs, theories must often, especially 
 in India, be modified by practical tests. 
 
 It is quite possib'e for the caste convert to lose all influence 
 with his own caste, and become as dead to them, even while 
 the educated preacher of low-caste origin may excite their 
 wonder, and win their respect. Moreover, the numerical element 
 is of far greater importance in a country where so few read 
 books, but all read character, and it would take very special 
 gualifications to equal by highability the influence of numbers 
 of humble Christians who become living epistles known and 
 read of all men. 
 
 (4) Lastly, they appear to be especially chosen for a Divine 
 purpose and called of God for his glory, and hence we may 
 expect final victory.—This order of development seems to be of 
 the Lord. Christianity has ever advanced on the same lines, 
 The leaven must needs work upward through the mass. “ Base 
 things of the world and things that are despised kath God 
 chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought 
 things that are; that no flesh should glory in his presence.” 
 Had the proud and intellectual come first, some high caste 
 Somaj might have been the chief result. Men with such heredi- 
 tary training and prejudices might have found it very difficult 
 to conform to the New Testament pattern, and the outcaste 
 might have been outcaste still, A change of religion among 
 the high castes would perhaps have produced little more stir 
 among the struggling mass beneath them than their asloption 
 of western education and political ideas have done. 
 
 But God’s messengers who have turned the world upside down have 
 come hither also, ‘These humble ones sit at the feet of Jesus and learn 
 of Him, knowing no wisdom but Him, who is made unto them: wisdom 
 from God. They are being transformed, and men marvel. He that 
 was filthy becomes decent, he that drank and lied and quarrelled be- 
 comes sober, and truthful, and peaceable. Here is a revolution, a 
 transforming influence, a new life which arrests attention and magnifies 
 the Gospel as the power of God in the eyes of all the people. 
 
18 
 
 Brahmins have at last been aroused to discuss ‘‘ What can be done 
 for the Pariah?” and to acknowledge helplessly that their great and 
 only hope lies in embracing Christianity. Once more the proud are 
 known afar off while grace is given to the humble, once more the last 
 shall be first, and the poor rich in faith ‘‘ are found to be heirs of the 
 kingdom.’’ We praise God for the wonders he has wrought in India, 
 for all converts from all classes, but we cannot but rejoice especially 
 that from among the poor despised lowcaste people, so many have 
 “come up out of great tribulation and washed their robes and made 
 them white in the blood of the lamb.” } 
 
 For this and all success to Him be all the glory, as for the future 
 in Him is all our hope: ‘“ Blessed be His glorious Name forever: and 
 let the whole earth be filled with Nis glory, Amen arid Amen.”