CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN HUN ADEA. by Ruy G. H. ROUSE, MA, LL.B., MISSIONARY IN CALCUTTA. LONDON: Printed for the Iaptist Missionary Soctety, AND PUBLISHED BY YATES ALEXANDER & SHEPHEARD, 21, CASTLE STREET, HOLBORN. 1882. PRICE SIXPENCE. CHRISTIAN MISSIONS SLINEID A ae Byres Gobel OU SH een ie iia. MISSIONARY IN CALCUTTA. LONDON: Printed for the Waptist Missionary Society, AND PUBLISHED BY YATES ALEXANDER & SHEPHEARD, 21, CASTLE STREET, HOLBORN. ood 1882. LONDON: PRINTED BY YATES ALEXANDER AND SHEPHEARD, LONSDALE BUILDINGS, CHANCERY LANE, W.C. CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN INDIA, o_o ee ran CHAPTER I. THE WORK BEFORE US. E propose briefly to consider our mission work in India. In regard to it, or any other department of Christian effort, we may pretty fairly cover the ground by seeking to answer four simple questions—What have we to do? What are we doing? What have we done? And what do we hope to do? Of course it will be under- stood all along that we, of ourselves, can do nothing: it is only God who worketh through us; and it is because He is with us that we have reaped any fruit, or can hope to reap any in the future. Our first question, then, is, ‘* What have we to do?” In reference to India our reply is, We have to preach the Gospel through the length and breadth of the land, and to seek to bring India to the obedience of. Christ. But then comes the further question, What is India? People in England ‘have a very inadequate idea of what is really comprehended within this short name. Let it be remembered, to begin with, that India is not a country, but a continent; that is, it is not peopled by a single race speaking mainly one language, but it contains ,a large number of different peoples speaking different languages. We sometimes hear in England of the “ language of India ;’’ but we might as well talk of the ‘‘ language of Hurope;”’ for there are as many different languages spoken in India as in Europe; and if we take in all the different dialects spoken by the various hill-tribes, there would be many more still. This difference of language increases our difficulties in India. Sometimes a missionary needs to learn more than one language; missionaries in one part of the country cannot, in cases of urgency, be sent to aid their brethren in other parts; and, above all, the important and arduous work of Biblical translation and the preparation of a Christian literature has to be carried on in more than a dozen totally distinct languages. India is not much less than 2,000 miles from North to South, and 1,500 from East to West. Itis equal in extent and in population to A 2 4A ; CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN INDIA. the whole of Europe outside of Russia. The last census showed that the population of India is about 250,000,000, equal to the population of the British Isles seven times over. Of this enormous number of people, about one-quarter belong to feudatory States, which manage their own affairs, though under the general supremacy of England ; while over three- quarters, or about a hundred and ninety miliions, are under direct British rule, and as much our fellow-subjects as are the people of Scotland or Devonshire. Whilst, then, it is the duty of all Christians to carry the Gospel to India, it is emphatically the duty of British Christians to do so ; for God has, in a most wonderful way, given India to Britain. No doubt there has been much of unrighteousness in the means by which the Indian Empire has been built up, but, as a matter of fact, God, in His providence, has given it to us, the present generation of Englishmen; we inherit the responsibility and cannot divest ourselves of it. India 1s ours, and God has given it to us, certainly, not that we should get wealth or honour by the connection, but that we should give the Gospel to the dark races of that vast continent. A very striking parallel might be drawn, did space allow, between the Roman Empire, which the early Christians sought to evangel- ise, and the Indian Empire, which God has put into our hands. In each case a very small beginning led on and on, in God’s wondrous providence, until a mighty empire was the result. The civil and military system of Rome presents many points of similarity to the civil and military service of India. In each case we see a number of differing and conflicting nations, speaking different languages, brought to enjoy perfect peace under the iron rule of the conquering power. In extent of territory there is probably not very much difference; while, as far as population is concerned, it is estimated that the population of India at the present day is twice as large as the population of the whole Roman Empire at the very zenith of its power. We know how hard a task it was to evangelise the old Roman. Empire, but to evangelise India is a far harder task even than that. Our work in India is beset with special difficulties, which;we may refer to here- after; but if Christians in England will realise that our Indian Empire is far vaster in regard to population than the whole Roman Empire ever was, they will be the better able to appreciate the responsibility which rests upon them in regard to its evangelisation. This, of course, is a work which the Christian Church alone can undertake. The Government ought not to do it; the Government cannot do it; the Government will ‘not doit. The Church of Christ ought to do it; the Church of Christ, with the promise “Lo, I am with you always,” and the power of the Holy Spirit, can do it ; may we add, the Church of Christ well do it? CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN INDIA, 3) The population of India in 1871 amounted to 240,000,000. The census of 1881 gives the population as about 250,000,000. The fact that the returns at ten years’ interval are so nearly alike, and show a natural increase, strengthens our confidence in their accuracy, though there are reasons for thinking that they are, if anything, wnder the mark. We may roughly divide this enormous population into three classes. The smallest, numeri- cally, is composed of the various hill-tribes. When the conquering Aryan hordes, the ancestors of the present Hindoos, entered India some three thousand years ago, they found a number of aboriginal tribes occupying the country. These they conquered and drove to the hills; the result is that now the hills scattered through India are inhabited by races entirely different from the people on the plains. They differ in colour, feature, religion, language, and character ; we can hardly find anywhere two more dissimilar men than a hills-man and a plains-man. The hill-people are less acute intellectually than the Hindoo lowlanders, but they are more simple and straightforward, and in some respects more manly in disposition. For these reasons, and also because their religious systems are much weaker than Hindooism, the Gospel spreads among the hill-tribes more rapidly than it does among the people of the plains. A large number of the converts in India consist of hills-men. Among the Santals, the Kols, the Garos, and other tribes, the progress of the Gospel has been very marked. {t is difficult to say how large the aboriginal population is. Dr. Hunter, I believe, estimates the number at 30,000,000, speaking as many as éwo hundred different languages or dialects. The Baptist Missionary Society does but little among this hill population, confining its operations mainly to the denser and more important population of the plains, where our difficulties are greater and our success less tangible than if we were labouring on the hills. But though our success is thus less apparent, we believe it is really as great to those who look beneath the surface. The next class of the population of India consists of the Muhammadans. It is a mistake to suppose that all the people of India are idolaters. There are more worshippers of one God and haters of idolatry in India than there arein the British Isles. The Mussulman population of India numbers about 40,000,000. Twenty years ago we should have said twenty or thirty millions ; but the great census of 1871, the first one worthy of the name, revealed the fact that there are forty millions of Muhammadans in India. ‘Queen Victoria has far more Muhammadan subjects than the Sultan of ‘Turkey has. She has more than any other potentate on the face of the earth. She has nearly as many Mussulman as Christian subjects. These Muhammadans, as we all know, worship one God and hate 6 CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN INDIA. idolatry. They profess to believe in the Old and New Testaments, and’ reverence all the prophets. Speak to a Muhammadan of the Law, the Prophets, and the Gospel, and he will acknowledge that they all are the Word of God. Speak to him of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Job, Moses, David,. Jesus, he will acknowledge that they are all the prophets of God, and that Jesus is the greatest of them all. How is it, then, it may be asked, that he does not become a Christian, and follow the teaching of the great Prophet Jesus? His reply will be that Muhammad has now come, and has abrogated all the previous systems of religion, as he holds that the: previous systems successively abrogated those which preceded them. He believes that Jesus was a great Prophet; but tell him that He is the Son of God, who was crucified for our sins, and all the enmity of his nature is aroused against you; he will tell you that it is blas- phemy to say that God has a Son, and will say that Jesus was not really crucified, but the Jews caught hold of some apparition which looked like Jesus and crucified it, while Jesus Himself went to heaven. If you press. him with the fact that. the Gospel which he professes to receive says that Jesus called Himself the Son of God, he will reply that we Christians have corrupted the Gospel which was entrusted to our keeping. The Muham-. madans thus, although they are nearer to the truth than the Hindoos, are yet far more bigoted against the Gospel. They are, in fact, very much like the Jews of old, who believed in the Hebrew Scriptures and in the prophets,, and yet were far more bitter opponents of the Gospel even than the heathen Greeks. So the Muhammadans are harder to win for Christ than the Hindoos. In fact we may adapt to these two classes the words of the Apostle in 1 Cor. i. 22—24. The Muhammadans hate, with all the intensity of their nature, the doctrine of Christ crucified; the Hindoos, in many parts, look down with scorn upon our learning—they think we English can make railroads, and build bridges, and wage wars, but, if it comes to a question of philosophy and religion, we are mere unclean, out- caste barbarians. So we may say: “ We preach Christ crucified, to the Muhammadans a stumbling-block, and to the Hindoos foolishness ; but to them which are called, both Muhammadans and Hindoos, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” Although the Mussulmans are so bigoted against the Gospel, yet many of them have become true believers, showing what the grace of God can do, and the responsibility rests upon us as Christians, and especially as British Christians, to make known the Gospel to these forty millions of Muhammadans, the great bulk of them our fellow-subjects. But the main element in the population of India is the Hindoo. Since CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN INDIA. VE fee many, even of the aboriginal tribes, are becoming Hindooised, the proba- — bility is that about too hundred million souls are more or less Hindoo in their religion, most of them thoroughly so. Who can _ estimate what is meant by such a number? Let us remember that these are all idolaters; let us think how idolatry debases man, dishonours God, and brings down a righteous recompense of punishment from a righteous God. It is not man, but God, who says: “ But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and ¢dolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death ’”’ (Rev. xxi. 8). We have, then, in India, forty millions of Muhammadans who profess to know God and yet reject the Gospel of His Son, and we know that “ Who- soever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father” (1 John ii. 23). We have, in the Hindoo and aboriginal population, at least two hundred millions of idolaters, of each of whom God says: “ He feedeth on ashes ; a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, ‘ Is there not a lie in my right hand?’ ”’ (Isa. xliv. 20). We know the Son who has made us free from Satan; are we not bound to make Him known to these tens of millions of Mussulmans? We have the Bread of Life; are we not bound to offer it to these hundreds of millions who are feeding on ashes? We have the truth which has delivered our souls; are we not bound to tell it to those hundreds of millions who have a lie in their right hand and cannot deliver their souls ? CHAPTER I. OBSTACLES TO SUCCESS. We bave briefly looked at the field of labour, in its extent and its varied peoples; we now consider some of the special obstacles in our way. I do not lay much weight upon some of: the obstacles-which have been at times referred to, chiefly by theorists. For instance, the fact that Protestantism is divided into a number of different sects is sometimes brought forward as a great obstacle. But the Hindoos have sense enough, as a rule, to know that Christians agree in far more points than those in. which they differ. For the most part, only one aspect of Christianity is brought before any inquirer after the truth. The country is so vast that all Evangelical missions practically agree to divide it between them, and not to interfere with one another’s work; much as if, supposing England 8. CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN INDIA. were a heathen country, it were arranged that the Episcopalians should evangelise Lancashire, and the Presbyterians Yorkshire, the Congrega- tionalists the Midland Counties, and the Baptists Devonshire and Cornwall. In such a case, any individual Englishman would, in most parts, come practi- cally across only one phase of Protestant Christianity. So in India, Jessore, with over two million inhabitants, is left to the Baptists; Burdwan, with a like number, to the Church Mission ; Moorshedabad, with 1,300,000 souls, to the Congregationalists ; andso forth. Ofcourse, here and there the mis- sions overlap, and in large cities like Calcutta all bodies are at work. But even there they are at work in harmony, and, in dealing with the heathen» almost the only point of difference that comes prominently out relates to the mode of baptism; because, as far as subjects are concerned, all denomina- tions agree to require faith as a pre-requisite to baptism in the case of the heathen, and, of course, no question of church government comes up until aman has become a Christian. The differences between Christians are very convenient as an objection to those who are looking out for one—-and if they had not this, they would soon find or manufacture another—but I do not believe it presents much of a stumbling-block in the way of a sincere inquirer. Nor do I think that there is much in the charge that missionaries present a Western theology to the Hindoos. There is too much of Occidentalism about our church systems in India (especially among the Episcopalians and Presbyterians), but this only comes up after people have become Christians, In preaching to the heathen, missionaries only proclaim the elementary facts and doctrines of Christianity. I do not attach any weight, either, to the charge that the preaching of the doctrine of eternal punishment is a great obstacle in the way of the spread of the Gospel. I have had a little experience in open-air preaching in India, though not very much, but I do not remember having once heard an objection raised on this point; and I believe the general experience of missionaries is in the same direction. Of course, people may object to it, just as they object to the Atonement, Incarnation, and other doctrines which are none the less true because they are opposed; but I believe such doctrines as these are far more of a stumbling-block in India, as the preaching of the Cross has ever been, than is the doctrine of eternal punishment. Now then for real obstacles. In the first place we must put, what we have already referred to, the vast size of the country and the enormous mass of the people who have to be evangelised, and compare with this the smallness of the agency employed. For the evangelisation of 250,000,000 CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN INDIA. 9 souls, sunk in heathen or Mussulman darkness, we have a band of about 500 European and American missionaries—a proportion of whom is always away from the country seeking restoration of health—and perhaps 2,000 native helpers, many of them of inferior ability and zeal, the best men available, but far from satisfactory. There are probably as many workers in Christian Wales, with a population of between one and two millions. If Wales had been in India, with a heathen population, it might have had one foreign missionary and half-a-dozen Welshmen for the evangelisation of the whole Principality! Backergunge, in Hast Bengal, has a population exceeding two millions, nearly as many as Lancashire, and it has perhaps forty Christian preachers, many of whom give their main time to the pastorate of the native churches. Yet Backergunge is a highly favoured district. We could point to Jessore, nearly as large, with about half the number of workers; to Pubna, half as large, about as populous as Wales, with no Christian preacher whatever; and to other large districts as destitute as these. In many parts of India we might travel a hundred miles or more, and find no preacher and no Christian whatsoever. And even where there is a Christian agency in a district, what can be accomplished when it is so feeble? On my first arrival in India I was stationed in Beerbhoom with good old Mr. Williamson, a veteran mis- sionary, who had been forty years there and was indefatigable in his work. I asked him once if he had yet been over the whole district, and his reply was, ‘“‘No; there are many villages in it to which I have not yet been able to go even once.” And yet Beerbhoom was a comparatively small district for Bengal, with only about 600,000 inhabitants—rather a large parish though, for one man, with three or four native helpers! The vastness of the field, coupled with the fewness of the labourers, produces great obstacles in the way of the truth. Another difficulty arises from the fact that these millions of India are mainly adherents of two of the mightiest systems of evil which Satan has ever invented—Hindooism and Muhammadanism. Each of these religions is venerable in antiquity, and is reverenced by its followers as having come down to them with ail the authority which the use of centuries and even millenniums can confer. They are not composed of mere vague customs which arose nobody knew how, but they are based upon religious books, still extant, and venerated as the very Word of God. The Muhammadan reverences his Koran, and the Hindoo his Shaster, fully as much as Christians reverence the Bible as the Word of God. Each religion is not a mere appendage to the life, as too often it is with professing Christians, but it is a vital part of it, or rather it is infused into the whole of it, and can be no more 10 CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN INDIA. separated from it than the web from the woof. It has been well said that the Hindoos “eat religiously, drink religiously, bathe religiously, dress religiously, and even sn religiously ;’? and very much the same might be said of the Muhammadans. This religion, so ingrained in their whole life, has been instilled into them from their earliest childhood, they have grown up in the belief of its dogmas and the practice of its rules, and they are ever surrounded by an atmosphere of similar beliefs and practices in the people around them. Lach religion has a priesthood, who will be quick to oppose any attacks on it, as such attacks, if successful, will diminish or destroy the income on which the members of the priesthood live. Each religion, moreover, is well adapted to its adherents, rigid as iron in some respects, yet lax in others; each has a philosophical system, or several systems, for the learned and thoughtful, and a gross materialistic religion for the vulgar herd. Hindooism and Muhammadanism form, with Buddhism, a triple fortress of enormous strength which Satan has erected outside of Christendom, and within which hundreds of millions of the human race remain enslaved. We have spoken a little of the difficulties which we have to encounter in dealing with Muhammadans; we may adda few words in reference specially tothe Hindoos. Their religion is, to us practical Westerns, so egregiously absurd that it would seem as if it ought to be an easy task to bring a Hindoo over to Christianity. But we should find it far more difficult than we think. Suppose, now, we have a Hindoo before us, and we exhort him to forsake his religion and becomea Christian. His first reply will be: “ We must do as our fathers did, and as other people do.” In no country has “ custom ”’ such mighty power as in India. We may ask them whether their fathers went by railway, sent letters by post, or wore shoes ; and if they do not follow their fathers in these matters, why should they in a false religion? We might ask them whether, during a time of famine, they would refuse to take food when offered them, on the ground that other people were starving around them, and so forth. But we shall find it very difficult to shake them out of the lethargy produced by custom. If we do, the Hindoo has another resource, fatalism. “ This is the Kala Yug, the evil age, and it is no use trying to be holy now. What is to be, is to be. Weare fated to be Hindoos, and there isan end of the matter.’’ There is nothing so deadening to the soul as fatalism, and it is a sad fact that on this point all three of the great non-Christian religions, Hindooism, Buddhism, and Muhammadanism, are at one. We try and shake them out of this fatalism by telling them that they do not act on this principle in common life ; they sow their fields, they toil for money, they take medicine, and never allow fatalistic doctrines CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN INDIA, ll to interfere with their worldly business. But it is questionable how far we shall succeed. If we do, our Hindoo friend may take refuge in pantheism, and tell us that he is God, and everything is God, that it is God who does everything in him, and who causes him to sin. Or he will have recourse to. the doctrine of Maya (allusion), and say that nothing really exists; as a juggler deceives the senses, so all creation is the jugglery of the impersonal and abstract deity. If we attack his Hindooism, we shall be surprised at. the skill with which he defends it. True, the gods told lies and com- mitted murder and adultery, but it is no sinin them; they may do anything they please, just as a king may do whata subject may not do. True, we worship idols, but we merely reverence the god who takes his: abode in them, and treat them as visible helps to his worship. There are many gods; and yet there is only one, as the one sun is reflected in ten thousand different drops of water. In these and various other ways they defend their own religion ; and even if we convince them of the excellence of Christianity, they will reply that no doubt it is an excellent religion for us, but their religion is just as good for them; every man will be saved by his own religion; there are many roads to a city, and we may enter by whichever we please ; and, just so, there are many ways to heaven, and we may take which we please. Such are some of the difficulties which we have to encounter in dealing with the Hindoos. We do not mean, of course, that every Hindoo we meet. will be prepared with all these arguments; but we may at any time meet with any of them, and they all exist, more or less definitely, in the mind of the average Hindoo. It will be seen, therefore, that in dealing with a Hindoo we have greater obstacles to encounter than in seeking to lead a. professing Christian to real faith in Christ. We have a triple work to do. Hirst, we must get him to understand our message. The man has from childhood been living in an atmosphere of deceit, resting on a false material religion of mere externals ; how shall we succeed in enabling him even to understand our spiritual religion? We speak to him of si, and he thinks that sin means an act contrary to the laws of caste—eating beef, for instance. We speak of holiness, and he understands the observance of the right religious ritual. We speak of heaven, and he understands by the word the abode of sensual happiness in which the gods live. It is difficult, therefore, to get the Hindoo to understand our message. If he does under- stand it, the next thing is for him to deldeve it—that is, to believe that what. he has learnt from childhood, and what all around him believe, 1s wrong, and what we, unclean foreigners from the other side of the black water, tell him is right. If we succeea in this, we only lift him to the level of an | eee CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN INDIA. ordinary unconverted Englishman, who knows the truth but does not love it; the work of conversion has yet to be accomplished. We haye, in the case of a Hindoo, to get him to take three steps—to understand, to believe, and to rececve the message in his heart. CHAPTER III. OBSTACLES TO SUCCESS—(continued). THERE is one special difficulty that meets us in India which renders mission work there, in a certain sense, unique; it is summed up in the word ‘caste. We need not refer to its origin, except to say that it has a religious basis. Hindoos say that originally there were four castes: the Brahmins (priestly class), who sprung from the head of Brahma (god) ; the Kshetriyas (warrior class), who sprung from his shoulders; the Vaishyas (merchant class), who sprung from his loins; and the Sudras (agricultural class), who sprung from his feet. Practically, in most parts of India, we have now only the Brahmins and the Sudras, and even classes inferior to the Sudras; but these are sub-divided into an interminable number of castes, each separate trade or occupation forming a separate caste ; so that the 180,000,000 or more of Hindoos in India may be said to be divided into a number of separate Jayers of population, each caste forming a layer, and having no feeling of brotherhood with any other layer. There are three main rules of caste, which we may call the trade rule, the marriage rule, and the food rule. The trade rule makes all the people of one caste to be of one occupation, which, of course, is thus hereditary. The weaver’s son must be a weaver, the potter’s son must be a potter, the barber’s son must be a barber—so must his grandson and great-grandson, and so was his own father, and grandfather, and great-grandfather. How- ever far we go back, they all were barbers, and however far we go forward they all will be barbers; and so on with all occupations. This rule is being slowly trenched upon by English influence; thousands of people have taken service in the railways, thousands of many castes have become clerks, and so forth. But still, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, amongst the Hindoos we may say that the son will be of the same occupation as the father. Conceive how strange it would be if this rule applied in England! Suppose the carpenter’s son must be a carpenter, and the shoemaker’s son a shoemaker, the doctor’s son a doctor, and the solicitor’s son a solicitor ! CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN INDIA. 13 How strangely altered society would be. But suppose, further, that not only must the carpenter’s son be a carpenter, but he must marry nobody but a carpenter’s daughter! And the shoemaker’s son must marry a shoe- maker’s daughter, and the doctor’s son a doctor’s daughter! And yet this is the universal rule in India. The weaver’s son must not only himself be a weaver, but he must marry a girl of the same caste—that is, whose father is of the same occupation. So the potter’sson must marry a potter’s daughter, and the barber’s son a barber’s daughter; and so on of all the different occupations in India. This marriage rule is wnzversal. From one end of India to the other we shall never hear of a potter’s son marrying a weaver’s daughter, or a blacksmith’s son marrying a barber’s daughter, or any one marrying out of his caste. Let us make a further supposition with regard to England. Suppose not only that a carpenter’s son must be a carpenter, and must marry only a carpenter’s daughter, but, further, that if he wishes to have a tea-party, he must invite nobody but carpenters to come and take tea with him! And if the doctor wishes to give a dinner-party, be must invite nobody but doctors tocomeand dine with him! Yet this, too, is the wnzversal rule in India; the potter must eat only with potters, the barber with barbers, the blacksmith with blacksmiths, and the weaver with weavers. A man of one caste never, by any possibility, eats with a man of another caste, or his caste would be destroyed. If they even take a whiff of the same pipe, the men lose caste. These, then, are the three main rules of caste, those relating to occupa- tion, marriage, and food. The effect is, as we have said, that the Hindoos are divided into a number of separate dayers, each caste having little to do with the others, and haying no sympathy or brotherly feeling for them. The effect is to destroy the brotherhood of man and put in its place the brotherhood of caste. ‘There is a man lying ill in the street-—never mind, he does not belong to our caste; if we touch him, perhaps we shall be defiled somehow ; this is the feeling which caste engenders. It produces pride in the upper castes and servility in the lower. The Brahmins are reverenced as the very gods of the Sudras, who bow before them in many parts of the country, and put their heads on the ground that the Brahmin may put his foot on their necks. The Sudras will wash the feet of the Brahmin, and then think themselves highly favoured to be allowed to drink the water in which the feet have been washed! The Shastras say: “ All the universe is under the power of the gods, the gods are subject to the mantras (incantations), the mantras are subject to the Brahmins; the Brahmins are, therefore, our gods. He who does not: 14 CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN INDIA. immediately bow down when he meets a Brahmin becomes a hog on the earth.’’ Thus Brahmins look down upon Sudras, and the higher castes of the latter look:down upon aJl beneath them. The spirit of caste is one of pride and separation ; it is, therefore, essentially an un-Christian spirit. Caste is purely a matter of externals, and relates only to certain rules, which, however, vary in detail in different parts of the country. A man may commit the most heinous crimes and be hanged for them, yet to the end he retains his caste unimpaired. He may believe what he please, and his caste is untouched. He may be on the one hand an Atheist, or on the other a Christian in his opmions; he may even give up idolatry and pray only to Christ, yet his caste remains untouched. But let him be baptized, or openly eat with a man of another caste, and his caste is at once broken. English education and civilisation is gradually undermining caste, one rule after another is being quietly dispensed with, until one day the whole system will come down with a crash. That day, however, may be farther off than we think, when we remember the enormous mass of the people of India, and the tenacity with which they hold to their customs. Still, come it will; but in the meantime we find caste presents a multiform and mighty obstacle to the success of our work. When the early missionaries first went to Southern India during the last century, they considered caste as a social rather than a religious matter, and felt that therefore they ought not to insist upon its renunciation on the part of their converts, but should treat it as the Apostles treated slavery, trusting to the gradual influence of Christianity to dissolve and bring to naught the evil system. But as years rolled on it was found that caste, instead of becoming weaker in the native Church, seemed to become justified and solidified by the sanction given to it ; and the evils consequent upon its toleration became so manifest that, in the early part of the present century, almost all Christian Protestant bodies in Southern India decided that caste should benno more tolerated in the Church. But they found it far more difficult to exorcise the demon than it would have been to prevent his entrance at the first; it is easier to keep evil out of the Church from the beginning than to put it out when it has once got in. To this day, the caste system is the main difficulty which the missionaries in Southern India have to deal with in the native Christian community. It is not, of course, tolerated in Church matters—as formerly there used to be separate cups for the different castes at the Lord’s Supper—but outside the Church it still has strong sway in social life, in matters which cannot be brought under Church discipline, though the evil effects of the system are manifest. In Northern India, we have never had any difficulty in the matter. From CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN INDIA. L5 the first, the grand Three of Serampore took the right stand, that caste is an un-Christian thing, which must not be tolerated in the Chureh; and when Krishna Pal, the first convert in Bengal, was baptized on the last Sabbath of the eighteenth century (December 28th, 1800), he left his caste in the waters of the Hooghly. All who, since then, have become Christians in Northern India have entirely renounced caste; andthe Christian Church there is a casteless community. This has made our progress slower than it other- wise would have been, but surer. Here and there, no doubt, a certain amount of caste spirit and even practice has remained secretly; but it is an unrecognised thing, and when discovered is disowned. “Caste hinders our work in many ways. Ifa man becomes a Christian— that is, outwardly joins the Christian community by baptism, or by eating with Christians—he ‘loses caste;”’ that is, he cuts himself off for life from his relatives. He may afterwards talk with them, but as long as he lives he must never live or eat with them; he is regarded as dead to them, and sometimes the funeral rites are performed for him! Many a man would far sooner hear that his son was dead than that he had become a Christian. A man who is inclined towards Christianity shrinks from such an ordeal as loss of caste involves; and, even if he is prepared for it, his relatives will do all they can to prevent his taking the fatal and final step. They will confine him, beat him, tempt him to sin, drug him to impair his intellect, bribe him, threaten him, cajole him, weep before him—do any- thing to prevent his baptism. The passionate crying and earnest entreaties of a beloved mother, sister, and wife are often employed to turn away young converts—can it be wondered at that they sometimes succeed? We know in this country what an ordeal a Jew has to pass through who becomes a Christian, what a wrench it makes in his domestic life; this is very similar to the experience of a Hindoo who “loses caste” by becoming a Christian. Caste presents another obstacle. We know how much good is often done when one soul in a godless household is converted, how frequently his light so shines at home that the whole household is gradually led to Christ. Caste rules prevent our having this aid to our work in India, because when a man openly embraces Christianity he can no longer remain at home and let his light shine there. This is a sad hindrance. Yet, again, caste prevents that homely union between Christians and heathens which might tend so much to the spread of the Gospel. We can- not, as here, invite people to tea-meetings ; we cannot make a feast for them, as Levi did for his: fellow-publicans ; we cannot drop in and have a friendly meal with them; we always have to be careful lest we inadvertently offend 16 CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN INDIA. their caste rules or prejudices; our touch, and even our shadow, would so pollute their food that they would throw it away, and break the vessel, if earthen, in which it was! It will be easily understood how all this tends to prevent that union and sympathy which would be so helpful to our work. Few things so bind men to one another as eating together, but this bond of union between Christians and non-Christians is simply impossible in India. Even Muhammadans have learnt. this evil lesson from their Hindoo neigh- bours, and they will no more eat with us, in India, than will the Hindoos,. although neither their religion nor, in other countries, their practice forbids such an act. Yet there is a bright side even to this caste question. It puts an ordeal at the door of Christian profession which prevents the Church being deluged with hypocrites. If it were not for caste rules thousands of persons would become Christians in the hope of getting something by it. Again, for every one who braves the consequences and openly embraces Christianity, we know that there are multitudes who are more or less fayourably inclined towards it, and many of whom, we hope, are true believers, but who still remain in the Hindoo community. In many cases such persons have given up idolatry, read the Bible, and worship Christ, but as they have not been baptized their caste remains untouched. This class of people is steadily growing, both in numbers and in the strength of their Christian propensities. But more of this when we speak of the results of Christian missions. Another encouraging thought is this, that the very tendency to ‘‘ follow the multitude,’’ so strong in India, which now keeps men back from open profession of Christianity, will, in due time, bring them over to it a a mass. As Mr. Arthur (“Mission to the Mysore”) says: “In no country will individual conversion, in a given locality, be slower at first than in India ; in no country will the absorption of masses from the ‘ great mountain’ be so vast or so rapidly successive.” We have no space to refer to other difficulties of our work in India, such as the fact that the work has still, to so large an extent, to be done by foreigners ; that the climate is so weakening ; that Christian faith and zeal in the workers tends to be damped by familiarity with evil; that the people of the country are of so dependent a disposition, rendering it very difficult to form self-supporting and aggressive churches; that so many nominal Christians, both English and Indian, live such ungodly lives; and so forth. But we have said enough to show how specially difficult a mission field is India; not only is its population twice as great as that of the whole Roman Empire, but its people are welded together in a mass of compact and caste-ridden heathenism such as the early preachers of the Gospel had not to contend with. CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN INDIA. gi CHAPTER IV. AGENCIES AT WORK. WE have attempted briefly to sketch the nature of the work we have to do in India, and noticed some of the special difficulties of the work. We now proceed to consider the “weapons of our warfare,’ and the means by which we seek to do the enormous work that lies before us; and we may sum up the whole by saying, ‘“‘ We preach Christ crucified ” This is our one offensive weapon; we have no other, we believe in nc other, we need no other; in dependence only on the power of God’s Spirit to make the weapon pierce to man’s innermost conscience, we wield “the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God;” as the apostles did, so do we “preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified.’’? This is the practice of all Evangelical missionaries. But we must interpret the word “preach” in no narrow sense; it is the “making known”’ of Christ—which we may do, not only in the crowded congregation, but in personal talk in the home or on the road, or by systematic teaching in a Christian school or college: And the missionary must not be precluded from doing anything which he believes will help to make the Gospel win its way. Paul made tents because he believed that his doing so would help to wing the Gospel arrow, and missionaries in India, in some cases, feel it their duty to teach mathe- matics or philosophy, as well as Christian truth, for the self-same reason. Our one work in India, then, is to “preach Christ.” The chief form which this takes is the direct public preaching of the Gospel. We call this the “‘chief’’ form, because it is the most direct one, and that to which more attention is paid in India than to any other. But we must not sup- pose that Gospel-preaching in India is, like that in England, mainly carried on in public places of worship. Asa rule, the non-Christian natives will never enter our churches and chapels; they consider that these are intended only for Christians, and if a Hindoo or Muhammadan begins to attend one he becomes a marked man, and is liable to persecution from his caste-mates, Hence, as the natives will not come to us, we must go to them, and our preaching to them is partly carried on in mission-halls in the ‘bazar ”’— that is, the business part of the town—but chiefly in the open-air. The climate of India allows of open-air preaching being carried on more or less all the year round, and this, therefore, constitutes our main evangelistic agency. Such preaching in India is of very much the same character as open-air preaching in England, except that, as we address non-Christians B 18 CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN INDIA. who do not receive the Bible as God’s Word, we do not, as a rule, preach from a text, but simply address the people on the basis of such beliefs as we have in common, and lead our discourse on to the preaching of Christ as the only Saviour. Frequently, however, some pointed text, or, better still, some incident or parable from one of the gospels, will form the basis of our address. Our message must be simple, pointed, short, and contain “line upon line,” so that even the people who come and go may get some- thing definite and weighty to carry away with them. Weare liable to have objections raised; and, while we do not court discussion, which often tends to an unprofitable wrangle, yet we must be prepared to meet it when necessary, and must strive to turn it in the right direction. During the time of the year when the heat or the rain compels us to stay at home, the preaching missionary will go regularly, once or twice a-day, to the “bazar,’” or other frequented place of the town where he lives, or to some neighbouring village, to preach Christ, and will generally be accompanied by a native preacher. During the itinerating season he will move about in his district, with his native helpers, from town to town and village to village, from market to market and fair to fair, scattering the Divine seed. There are in India many large annual gatherings known by the name of mela, which word means a religious fair. These gatherings are connected with some Hindoo deity, but business and pleasure are mingled with the religious aspects of the gathering. At some of these melas occasionally as many as one or two millions of people from all parts of India are gathered together; and such gatherings afford excellent opportunity for the widespread procla- mation of the truth. Many a convert in India has been led to Christ by mela-preaching. In the Delhi district and elsewhere much fruit has been gathered by short and simple services held in some open courtyard, to which the neighbours come in. Such gatherings present the devotional side of Christianity better than bazar preaching, yet the latter is stilla very important agency. We have said that evangelistic preaching in India must be of a simple: and pointed kind, and based upon those fundamental truths “which the people still hold. Perhaps it may be well to give a specimenof amissionary address, with the common objections that we may have to meet. It will be seen that, if we wish to reach the Indian mind, the more of illustration and parable that we use the better. Let us suppose that we have before us. an open-air gathering of Hindoos and Muhammadans. We might. begin thus :— : “There are many points of difference tetween youand me. We differ in colour, language, nationality, religion, ke. Yet there are many points CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN INDIA. 19 of agreement. We both have a similar body and soul; we are all men. We are all liable to similar diseases. Suppose, now, a Hindoo, a Muham- madan, and a Christian were ill of fever, would the doctor give different medicines to the three? No, he would ask no questions about religion ; the same medicine would be suited for all. Now, we all alike are ill with the disease of sin, and there can be no happiness for us till we are freed from it. Suppose one of you Hindoos owed a thousand rupees, and the creditor pressed you for payment, and threatened to send you to gaol, and that a poor brother of yours said to you: ‘Never mind, I will pay your debt.’ You would say to him: ‘ You pay my debt! why, you have not a farthing, and what is more, you are in debt yourself!’ Or suppose you were down in a deep pit, stuck fast in the mire, and your brother by your sde said: ‘Never mind, brother, I will get you out of the pit... You would reply: ‘How can you doit? You are as badly off asI am; get yourself out of the pit first, and then you may be able to get me out.’ Justso; we all are in debt to God, and we need some one who is not himself in debt to God to free us; we all are stuck fast in the mire of sin, and we need a deliverer who is not stuck fast in it. In other words, we are all sinners, and we need a sinless Saviour. Where shall we find one? The gods committed great crimes; they could not save themselves from sin. Muhammad acknowledges himself a sinner in the Koran. Where shall we find the sinless one?” Then we shall speak of Christ’s life, character, teaching, death, resurrection, ascension, and say, ‘‘ This is just the Saviour that you need.” Hereupon a man in the crowd interposes with a question, ‘Sahib [Sir], you say that Jesus was sinless, and yet that He died; how can that be?” Such a question comes very opportunely. To answer the question why Jesus, a sinless Being, had to die, we must preach the Gospel, taking this question of the objector as our text, and the people listen with the more attention because it is an answer to an objection. When we have answered. this, another man calls out, “ Sahib, how did sin come into the world?” ‘““Never mind about that; it is not a practical question.’ ‘* How did sin: come into the world? I won’t hear you unless you answer that question.’” We reply, ‘“‘ There was a man who was very ill, and the doctor went to him: and said, ‘My friend, you are dangerously ill; there is only one remedy, and: you must take it or you will die.” The man replies, ‘ But, doctor,, how did I get ill?’ ‘Never mind that,’ said the doctor; ‘here you are; ill ; take the medicine and recover.’ ‘No, doctor,’ says the man ; ‘if you don’t tell me how I got ill I will not take your medicine. What would you think of that man? But that is just like our friend here; he wants to know how sin came into the world. Never mind that—here it is; the question is B2 20 CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN INDIA. how we can get sin owt of the world, and we have come to tell you of the great Deliverer from sin.” Over there stands a man who assents to all you say—‘ Good, very good; excellent, Sahib!’’—and you think the man is almost a Christian. “Your religion,” he says, “is an excellent one—for you; but ours is just as good for us. Every man will be saved by his own religion— the Hindoos by Hindooism, and the Christians by Christianity. There are many roads to a city, and you can take which you please; so there are many ways to heaven, and one is as good as another.” We reply, “ There was a village where all the people were ill of fever. Six doctors went there, and every doctor had a different remedy, and each doctor said that all the other doctors were wrong. The people said, ‘ Never mind; all you have to do is to take your father’s doctor, and he will be sure to cure you.’ Were they wise?” “No.” “ But they were like our friend over there. The different religions of the world are all opposed to one another; one says there is one God, another, that there are many; one, that we are to be saved by faith, another, by our religious works; and so forth. They cannot all be right. There is one sun and one moon, and there is but one true religion.” “How are we to know which is the true one?’”’ asks a man. We might give many answers to this question ; one may be this: “ To another village two doctors went; all who took the first doctor’s medicine recovered, and all who took the second doctor’s medicine died—how do you know which was the good doctor ?’’ “It was the one who cured.” ‘ Just so, and the true religion is the one that saves. Now you Hindoos and Muhammadans have followed each your own religion from childhood, but you know that the burden of sin is as heavy as ever. If you had had a doctor treat you for twenty or fifty years, and you had got no better, would not you change your doctor? But Christianity has saved millions. There are thousands of drunkards whom Christ has made sober, impure men whom He has purified, sinners whose burden of sin He has removed.” Hereupon another man interposes, with a malicious look on his face: ‘Sahib, you say that the true religion is known by its effects?” ‘‘ Yes.” “And that Christianity is proved to be the true religion by its saving men from sin.’ “Yes.” “Then how about the Christians that get drunk, and do all sorts of bad deeds?’’ This is an awkward question, because the bad lives of nominal Christians constitute one of the greatest obstacles in our way. We reply: ‘In a certain village there were two sick men; the good doctor went to them and gave them medicine. They thanked him, and said they would certainly take it; but, as soon as the doctor had left, one man drank the medicine and recovered; the other man threw away the medicine and died. Whose fault was it—his or the doctor’s?’’ “ His.” CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN INDIA. al “Why?” “Because he only promised and pretended to take the medi- cine.” “Just so; and these ‘ Christians,’ as you call them, who get drunk only pretend to take the medicine; they are not real Christians. All who really believe in Christ are freed from sin.” “ Why do you tall to us so much about Christ ?”’ asks another. “You should tell people to be truthful and chaste and upright, and that will be enough.”’ We reply, “What good would there be in a doctor’s going to a sick man and saying, ‘I earnestly advise you to get well’? Or what would be the use of exhorting prisoners to get out of prison? They cannot do it. No more can people, in their own strength, get free from the bondage or recover health from the disease of sin. But when we preach Christ we not only tell men what to do, but point them to Him who can really deliver them.” ‘“* Well,” says another, “‘T do not see what it matters whether I honour Christ or not. I reverence God, and pray to God; what does it matter about Jesus Christ?” We reply : “ You remember when the Prince of Wales was in India how all the great people, from the Viceroy downwards, combined to honour him. Suppose you had seen a man in the street fold his arms and make faces at the Prince, and had asked him, ‘Is that the way you treat the Queen’s son?’ and he replied, ‘What does it matter how I treat that man? I honour and reverence the Queen; that is enough.’ You would have said, ‘If you do not honour the Queen’s son, how can you honour the Queen?’ Just so; God sent His Son from heaven to earth—not, as the Prince of Wales, to have the best of everything, ‘not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.’ God sent His Son from heaven to earth to die for you, and then you say,‘It does not matter whether I love Him or not’! ‘ He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent Him.’ ” Another man says that bathing in the sacred Ganges takes away sin. We reply by a story of a washerman who put his dirty linen into a box, and washed the outside of it, and was surprised to find the linen inside as soiled as before. ‘‘ Just like you; your soul sins, and you wash your body , what good can that do?’’—a question which even in England believers in baptismal regeneration might well ponder ! Another man says that we must not abandon our paternal religion and customs. He is asked whether his fathers wore shoes, and went by train, and sent letters. by post, as he himself does. So we meet with various objections, and in, some parts now we have to encounter from English- educated natives many of the current objections to Christianity which are met with in England. Our aim, however, as we said, is not to discuss, but to preach Christ; and it is found that there is much less now in the way Bh, CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN INDIA. of defence of Hindooism than there used to be formerly. Preaching, teaching, Bible and tract distribution, and general education have done . much to clear away ignorance and prejudice. The wide preaching of the Gospel, though disbelieved in, and even scorned by some, has done.a large amount of good in the actual conversion of souls, and still more as one of the most important of many means which, in their combination, are changing the religious aspect of India. CHAPTER. V. AGENCIES AT WORK—(continued). Evancetstic preaching in India, if it stood alone, would probably accom- plish but little in the way of conversion, but it is invaluable as a means of arousing attention, awakening inquiry, and spreading Christian truth. It makes a man feel that the matter is worth looking into, and then other agencies come into play, leading on to actual conversion. The man who chas been awakened comes again and again, seeks private conversation with -the missionary or the native Christians, and thus is led on to decision for Christ. But this can take place only where there are Christians; on itinerating tours, if we depended only on preaching, we should gather very little fruit, because we should not be able to follow the matter up. But . here comes in a most important agency— BIBLE. AND TRACT DISTRIBUTION. A missionary goes to a market and preaches; at the close of his address “he says to the hearers, “Now Iam going my way, and you yours; very ~ likely we shall never meet any more on earth; but if you want to know more -about the Jesus of whom we have been speaking take one of these books {holding up a gospel or a tract], read it, and you will learn the way to heaven.’ People who have been interested in the preaching will readily take the books. Formerly these books used to be given away, but now they are for the most part sold—at a very low price, it is true, much under cost price; but it is getting to be more and more the rule to sed/ these Christian books, because we believe that books paid for will generally be better attended to than those which have been received for nothing. CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN INDIA. 23 These Scripture portions and tracts are sold through two special agencies, by missionaries ‘and native preachers after preaching, and by colporteurs specially devoted to the work of sale. Some small tracts are still given away, but the Seripture portions and the larger or more interesting tracts are now almost universally sold. It is one of the signs of progress that it is now much easier to sell these smail Christian books than it used to be, in many places, to induce the people to receive them as a gift. Within the last ten years as many as nine million copies of Scriptures and tracts have been given away or sold in India! Who can tell how great a blessing may come from this broad-casting of the written truth? Little tracts, con- taining Christian hymns and songs, and sold at a pice (2d.) each, are specially popular, and are sold by tens of thousands. What is the result of this distribution? Its effects are manifold, and many of the greatest successes achieved by the Gospel have been connected with this department of mission work. A torn Gospel of Mark given in Orissa to a man who could not read was one of the most important links in the chain through which the church at Khundittur was formed, which has been in existence some forty years, and from which some of the best Orissa preachers have come. A tract, the “True Refuge,’’ received at Chittagong, led to the formation of the church at Comillah, in Eastern Bengal. This same tract has led many others to Christ. Tract distribution lay at the foundation of the great work in Backergunge. The “Jewel Mine of Salvaticn,” and other tracts, have been wonderfully blessed in Orissa. A gospel and tract given ona tour in Assam toa Garo man led to his conversion, and eventually to the commencement of that promising work of the American Baptists in the Garo Hills, where there are now, we believe, a thousand church members or more. In very many instances Bible and tract distribution has led to actual conversion and baptism, and the formation of a Christian church. Yet, again, now and then a case occurs like the following :—Some preachers were on tour, and offered Christian books to some boatmen, one of whom said to the preachers, “ My brother once got a book like that, took it home, read it, gave up idolatry, and as long as he lived called only on Jesus, telling us that He is the true Saviour.” Who can doubt that that man went to heaven, walking as he did according to the little light he had? And yet he never joined any Christian church. Every now and then we hear of incidents lke this, but itis only by accident that we do hear of them. Who can tell how many such cases there may have been that we have never heard of ? When millions of tracts and Scriptures have been thus scattered abroad, and have gone into remote towns and villages which 24 CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN INDIA, no missionary has eyer entered, it is impossible to say;how much good has been done. We believe that in hundreds of cases a man has received a tract or gospel, read it, felt its power, realised how superior Jesus is to Kali, or Krishna, or Durga, or any other of the gods and goddesses, trusted in Christ, and followed Him according to the light he had, and has gone to heaven—his name entered in no church-book on earth, but without doubt enrolled in the Book of Life above. Occasionally we find that these Christian books have been received by native religious teachers, who, to a certain extent, receive the truth, but mix up with it more or less of their own superstitions and teach their disciples accordingly. This is not to be wondered at, and even such mixed teaching helps to undermine Hindooism and so prepare the way of the Lord. But these gospels cannot be distributed till they have been translated into the vernaculars, and the tracts cannot be distributed till they have been prepared; and this, therefore, brings us to another most important missionary agency— BIBLICAL TRANSLATION AND OTHER LITERARY WORK. The importance of this has been felt by all missionary bodies, and em- phatically so by the Serampore and Calcutta brethren who laid the founda- tion of our own work in India. Bible translation is a work as difficult as it is important. In translating any ordinary work we may adapt it to the people for whom we translate it, cutting out a sentence here and adding one there, to make the matter clearer. But we cannot do so with God’s Word; we must be faithful to every “jot and tittle.’”? And yet in many places a rigidly literal translation would be unintelligible, because of a difference of idiom in the two languages. We have to guard, on the one hand, against being unfaithful to God’s Word, and, on the other, against being unintelli- gible or unacceptable in diction to the people for whom we translate it ; and to hit the golden mean is a most difficult task, requiring often hours of anxious thought. How important that words like “justify,” ‘ holiness,” “faith,” “flesh,” and many others should be rightly translated! We have to express Christian ideas in a heathen language—sometimes a barbarous, unwritten one. The work is very difficult; first attempts are sure to have many defects, and thus revisions are needed, especially where, as in so many cases, the native languages are, under English influences, undergoing a process of development. The Bengali translation, for stance, commenced by Dr. Carey in the last century, is still far from fixed. And Bengali, be it remembered, is only one of some twelve or more distinct languages spoken CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN INDIA. 25 on the plains of India, in all of which the Bible had to be translated and revised, and Christian tracts and books prepared. As the numerous hill- tribes become evangelised, the Bible, or portions of it, will have to be trans- lated into their languages also. It will be seen, therefore, that Biblical translation and Christian literary work is a most important agency in India. Another very important department of missionary labour in India is EDUCATIONAL WORK. This has for its object, partly the education of Christian children, and partly the bringing of the Gospel to bear upon Hindoo and Muhammadan youth. Some of these mission schools are very elementary, others are good vernacular or Anglo-vernacular schools, and others again are English colleges, where a thorough English Christian education is given to intelli- gent Hindoo youths. It is estimated that altogether there are about 2,500 mission schools in India, with 140,000 scholars, of which 200 give a higher education to about 12,000 pupils. In these schools we ‘‘ preach Christ’”’ as truly as does the open-air preacher in the bazar, or market, the only differ- ence being that in the latter case we preach the elements of the Gospel to a fluctuating congregation of adults, and in the former we preach it sys- tematically to a fixed congregation of young people. The good effects of this educational work have been manifold. All Western teaching tends to destroy Hindooism; but, whereas the Government secular education simply pulls down, our Christian education also builds up that which is to take its place. It is by this means that we can most readily reach the upper classes and bring the Gospel to bear upon them, and that in the formative period of their lives. The results of this college and school teaching are various. Hardly any youth can leave a mission college with a real heart-faith in Hindooism. The education breaks down the false system, if it does nothing else. In many cases it goes farther, and the young man leaves college, not a Christian, but, on the whole, favourably disposed towards Christianity ; and his influence in the future will be on the right side. In many other cases students leave who are “almost Christians,” intellectually convinced of the Divine origin of the Gospel, and even with their hearts deeply stirred by its truths; but they have not the grace to take the open step of joining the Christian Church, because of the social consequences that would ensue, and the life-separation which it would involve from the members of their family. We believe that in some cases even true believers keep back. 26 CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN INDIA. from the act of baptism, sincerely believing that under their circumstances itis their duty rather to live at home and confess Christ by their words and actions there, instead of being baptized, and thus cutting themselves off from all their relatives. But hundreds of students from these colleges have had grace to brave all consequences; they have openly, by baptism, joined the Christian Church, and constitute the cream of its membership, many of them occupying positions of great influence in the Christian ministry, as Christian teachers, or in various secular offices. There are many other agencies in mission work which might be referred to. There is evangelistic work among the Christian population, the large and growing number of Europeans and Eurasians (persons of mixed race) living in India. Hundreds of these have been converted through mission agency, and many of them have become themselves honoured instruments in God’s service. There is the superintendence of the native Church, which still, to a large extent, devolves, in its higher branches, on Europeans, although native Christians are more and more coming ‘to the front as pastors of churches. There is house-to-house visitation, which in many places has been found very useful, especially among the upper classes. Medical mssions have in some places been found very useful, although they are not so important as in countries like China. The traening of native pastors and preachers is a very important: department of work, to which some missionaries have devoted themselves. And last, but by no means least, the great and blessed Zenana Mission comes in to aid us. We need not enlarge upon this, as its general operations are so well known, but will only say that in importance it is second to no other agency; directly and indirectly, in past results and in future prospects, it is rich with blessing. These varied agencies that we have referred to all work together, and it is. a-mistake to praise up one and decry another. The preaching would accomplish little without the personal talk and the distribution of books. This latter could not be carried on without the work of translation. If ‘the husbands of India had not been favourably influenced by Christian education their wives would never have been allowed to receive the visits of the Zenana missionary lady; and, on the other hand, as the women are favourably influenced, they will influence their sons, and these sons will be better prepared to receive the Christian college teaching. Work among the European population has brought out many who became efficient preachers to the natives, and some native Christians have been the means of the conversion of Europeans. It will very seldom be found that one -agency sufficed for the conversion of any native Christian; preaching, CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN INDIA. . age teaching, reading, conversation, all worked together. Impressions made in a mission school in youth, and apparently quenched, have been quickened by hearing the Gospel preached or reading the Bible.. All agencies com- bine and dovetail with one another; we cannot spare any one of them; all are needed, and all have had the seal of the Master’s blessing. CHAPTER VI. RESULTS AND PROSPECTS. In some quarters the. “failure of missions’’ is still spoken of as if it were an indubitable fact. We believe, however, that in India, as well as else- where, our work has been eminently successful. But, in order to judge of the matter aright, it is necessary to keep in view the difficulties which we have had to encounter, the preparatory work which has needed to be accomplished, and the fewness of the agents employed. When these points are taken into consideration we believe our success will be found to have been greater than we could reasonably have expected. We must especially remember how much preparatory work has been necessary. The early preachers of the Gospel in Europe and Asia found their way prepared for them by the amount of knowledge of the true God which had been spread by the scattered Jewish communities; in almost all places the ‘devout Greeks” or the few believing Jews formed the nucleus of the Christian Church. In India we had no preparation of this kind to smooth our way, and, we found but little in the circumstances and beliefs of the people that was helpful to us.