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 xo 
 TESTIMONIES OF HINDUS 
 
 CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 
 
 BY JAMES L. BARTON, D.D. 
 Secretary of A. B.C. F. M. 
 
 American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions 
 
 Congregational House, Boston, Mass. 
 
 1902 
 
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 This leaflet can be obtained for free. di 
 churches contributing to the American Boa 
 cation to C. E. Swett, Congregational H. 
 at the offices of the District Secretaries, l 
 Building, gth Avenue and 22d St., New 
 La Salle St., Chicago. 
 
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 WHAT HINDUS THINK OF CHRISTIAN 
 MISSIONS IN INDIA AND CEYLON. 
 
 BY SECRETARY JAMES L. BARTON, D.D. 
 
 Do missionaries awaken animosities 
 among the people to whom they go? Are 
 they stirrers up of strife? A hundred years 
 ago it was thought that this must neces- 
 sarily be the case. The East India Com- 
 pany and the British government professed 
 to believe, and probably did believe, that 
 the preaching of the gospel in India would 
 arouse the native population and kindle a 
 religious warfare which would set the nation 
 ablaze, and drive out foreigners from the 
 whole land. This conclusion was not un- 
 natural, for are not Christian missionaries , 
 sent to introduce a religion which can brook 
 no rival, and which must oppose the sinful 
 and debasing teachings and practices of 
 false faiths. Unless the missionary con- 
 ceals the object of his mission, or preaches 
 an emasculated gospel, must he not make 
 enemies everywhere? But what has expe- 
 rience shown? 
 
 It is true that those who receive their 
 support from the native religions, like the 
 
 3 
 
priestly classes and the religious mendi- 
 cants, are openly and not infrequently 
 aggressively hostile to the missionaries. 
 But the recent Deputation of the American 
 Board to Ceylon and India were gratified 
 and not seldom astonished at finding how 
 highly the missionaries and the work they 
 are doing are esteemed by leading Hindus 
 and Mohammedans. ‘These people spoke 
 most freely to the Deputation upon this 
 subject. On several different occasions 
 representatives of the Hindu and Moham- 
 medan communities asked the privilege of 
 reading an address to the Deputation. In 
 some cases they came in numbers to the 
 assembly of Christians in their churches 
 and school buildings, while in other cases 
 they arranged for a meeting of their own, 
 inviting us to be present for the purpose of 
 receiving the address. 
 
 ADDRESSES FROM HINDUS 
 
 From some of these addresses we make 
 quotations here, premising that in no case 
 were the writers in any way connected with 
 the mission, or looking for favors from the 
 mission or from the Deputation. Some of 
 them are high officials under the Govern- 
 ment, drawing salaries much larger than 
 those of the missionaries. We can give 
 them full credit for saying what they think 
 
 4 
 
upon the subjects covered; and we must 
 bear in mind that no one of them considers 
 himself a Christian. Most of the readers 
 of the addresses had the Hindu sacred 
 ashes prominently displayed upon their 
 foreheads at the time, and nearly all the 
 addresses were prepared and presented as 
 “from the non-Christian community,” thus 
 representing more than the judgment of 
 the writer. All but one of the addresses 
 here quoted were read from English manu- 
 script in the handwriting of the reader, the 
 originals of which are now in my posses- 
 - sion, There is, of course, not room to 
 give the addresses in full, but the passages 
 omitted are in full harmony with the spirit 
 of what is quoted. 
 
 FROM A BRAHMAN LAWYER 
 
 The first quotation is taken from the 
 written address of a Brahman lawyer, who 
 spoke for the people of Roha, in the Kon- 
 kan, sixty miles south of Bombay. The 
 Hindus and Mohammedans there united 
 in a service to welcome the Deputation. 
 There were other addresses given upon 
 this occasion, but we quote from only one. 
 
 “The first and foremost object of all 
 Christian missions in India is to preach 
 the Gospel, to reveal the true religion of 
 God as believed by the Christians to the 
 
 5 
 
millions in India, and thus to raise them 
 from that very low state of religious degra- 
 dation to which they are sunk. ... Go 
 on educating the natives of India; raise 
 them from that very low position of life, 
 socially, morally and politically to which 
 they are sunk; place before them the sub- 
 lime principles of Christianity; convince 
 them by sound reasoning and worthy action 
 that Christianity is the only religion for the 
 world, and then there will be no necessity 
 to compel them to accept Christianity, be- 
 cause they will do it of themselves. I 
 would therefore propose that, something 
 more be done in respect of educating the 
 natives of India.” 
 
 FROM A DISTRICT GOVERNOR 
 
 The following is an extract from an ad- 
 dress delivered by the governor of the 
 Sirur section of the Poona District, 150 
 miles west of Bombay. The governor, 
 with his staff, attended the meeting in the 
 church, delivering the address in the pres- 
 ence of a church full of Christians, Hindus 
 and Mohammedans. 
 
 “The American Board has undertaken 
 all this work for the sake of Christian 
 charity. The Board has been working 
 here for twenty-five years, and the fruits of 
 their labors are to be seen in various ways. 
 
 6 
 
Look at their thriving girls’ school, boys’ 
 school, and the Industrial School. They 
 have brought among us civilization, and 
 brought knowledge within easy access to 
 the poor. In all this work we thankfully 
 appreciate their broad principles of Chris- 
 tian charity and love of knowledge. The 
 most noteworthy feature of this charity is 
 that it brings civilization and its comforts 
 within easy access to the poorest of the 
 poor. The present assembly testifies to the 
 varied benefits bestowed by the Board upon 
 us. We express our gratitude for the good 
 work of your Board, and our only prayer to 
 the Almighty is that He make your long 
 journey pleasant, and give you long life 
 and prosperity in your labor of civilization.” 
 
 In the first large assembly held in Cey- 
 lon to welcome the Deputation, a large 
 number of Sivites were present. During 
 the services they obtained permission to 
 present an address signed by thirteen of 
 their leading men, “on behalf of the Sivite 
 community of Chavagacherry.” It was read 
 by a prominent official of the town. 
 
 “We thank the American Board for the 
 manifold and rich blessings you have be- 
 stowed upon us. You have given us the 
 inestimable blessing of education, whereby 
 the knowledge of the truth in many things 
 was imparted to us.... The introduc- 
 
 if 
 
tion of your European methods of treatment 
 (of disease) has taken out of us the belief 
 in the charms and mantrams and irrational 
 treatment of our own medical men.” 
 
 In Tillipally, Ceylon, the Hindu com- 
 munity prepared an entertainment in the 
 high school building. The local governor 
 presided, and an address was read “on be- 
 half of the Sivites of Tillipally.” It is an 
 interesting fact that the place of meeting 
 was only a stone’s throw from the grave of 
 James Richards, one of the young men who 
 participated in the famous Haystack prayer 
 meeting at Williamstown, and who was one 
 of the first missionaries to go out under the 
 Board and lay down his life for the cause, 
 at the age of thirty-six. The following is 
 taken from an address read upon that 
 occasion : — 
 
 FROM THE SIVITES OF TILLIPALLY 
 
 “ Although we profess a creed different 
 from yours, yet we feel it our duty to ex- 
 press to you our sincere conviction regard- 
 ing the numerous advantages we non-Chris- 
 tians have derived from the work of your 
 missionaries in this country. During the 
 eight decades since you began work here, 
 excellent results have been produced upon 
 the people at large. We beg to render the 
 Board through you, our heartfelt thanks for 
 
 8 
 
the blessings of education, culture and civ- . 
 ilization that have inevitably attended the 
 preaching of the Gospel here.... The 
 noble ideals of duty and purity of life which 
 have been set before the people of this 
 country by the exemplary lives led by your 
 missionaries, have elevated our character 
 and infused a spirit of charity and gentle- 
 ness into many a Sivite home, and the many 
 moral precepts from the Scriptures, taught 
 us in our Bible classes, have been so well 
 impressed upon us that they have been the 
 underlying principles of guidance to us in 
 matters of our daily life.” 
 
 FROM A BRAHMAN EDITOR 
 
 Soon after our arrival at Madura, a 
 Brahman editor asked the privilege of com- 
 ing to the mission house and reading an 
 address expressive of his appreciation of 
 the Christian work done there. Among 
 other things he said :— 
 
 “The Madura District has been greatly 
 benefited by your mission since its advent 
 here, which has been one of the pioneers 
 in some secular works, also the lamp of 
 knowledge being taken into many dark 
 places and millions of human lives being 
 saved and led in the path of virtue and 
 righteousness, which is highly creditable 
 to American philanthropy, unparalleled in 
 
 9 
 
the annals of mankind. ... The names 
 of your missionaries became household 
 words in this district by the love and sym- 
 pathy they almost invariably bring to bear 
 upon every department of their work... . 
 A silent and wonderful revolution is taking 
 place in Indian minds, and many in India 
 are imbued with Christian spirit, and 
 breathing Christian thoughts and adopting 
 Christian modes of charity, which would 
 have been a phenomenon a few years ago. 
 I request the American Board through you, 
 not to lose heart but to continue its noble 
 and self-sacrificing work in the cause of 
 humanity. A whole nation, consisting of 
 divers sects and creeds, is grateful to it to 
 the backbone.” 
 
 FROM THIRTY HINDUS 
 
 At Melur, some twenty-five miles from 
 Madura, a leading Hindu official asked the 
 privilege of bringing a number of his 
 Hindu friends to the missionary’s house to 
 meet the Deputation, and to present to 
 them an address expressive of their appre- 
 ciation of the work already done. Some 
 thirty or more came, and an address was 
 read by the leader from which the following 
 quotation is made: — 
 
 “The first and foremost work done by 
 the missionaries is their legitimate work of 
 
 10 
 
conversion into Christianity. As I follow 
 the Hindu religion, you can’t expect me to 
 speak on the relative merits of the two 
 religions. I can, however, safely assure 
 you that, excepting a few bigots here and 
 there, the Hindus generally have no antag- 
 onism to it. It may, perhaps, sound strange 
 to you when I say that many liberal minded 
 Hindus sympathize, and at heart desire, 
 conversion on a larger scale than has been 
 effected now. The reason for it is the 
 constitution of the Hindu religion, which 
 denies to the lower castes the right to enter 
 the temples. They labor under disadvan- 
 tages which it is not possible to remove 
 from inside. All social reformers and lib- 
 eral minded people regret their inability to 
 do any practical good, and welcome the 
 help coming to them from embracing 
 Christianity. The contempt with which 
 the higher classes treat the lower, it may 
 not be possible for you to conceive... 
 
 such is the bane of caste and the curse of 
 India, and there seems to be no prospect 
 of deliverance from it (from within). 
 Therefore the work done by your mis- 
 sionaries is no antagonism to Hinduism in 
 the eyes of any from this standpoint, but 
 welcome help in regenerating the fallen 
 classes. ... Besides the secular educa- 
 tion given in the (mission) schools, the 
 
 11 
 
moral education imparted there is of incal- 
 culable benefit. Female education owes 
 its success entirely to your interest, and 
 the confidence with which little girls and 
 grown up girls are sent to your schools is 
 itself a sufficient testimony to the good 
 work done. 
 
 “The third branch of work is the part 
 your agency takes in quasi-official adminis- 
 tration and public movements of the coun- 
 try as residents and citizens of India. I 
 refer to the work done by them and their 
 subordinate staff as members of district 
 and ¢aluk (town) boards, etc. In addition 
 to the actual and substantial work done by 
 them as such, the moral influence and ex- 
 ample set by them to my countrymen, who 
 are just beginning to exercise local self- 
 government, is invaluable. The last and 
 most important of the work done by the 
 missionaries is the elevation of the moral 
 tone and sense of duty, imbibed in the 
 midst of my countrymen by free intercourse 
 and friendship with them. The mission- 
 aries are easily accessible to all, and are 
 freely consulted in all matters, even on 
 domestic affairs, by Hindus. Such contact 
 benefits both parties, and especially the 
 latter. The general impression was, and 
 is, that the fact of a man being a Christian 
 was a guarantee to his truth-speaking and 
 
 12 
 
good conduct. The teaching in the schools, 
 public preaching and private contact with 
 our revered missionaries, go a great way 
 towards moulding the character of my 
 countrymen. In brief, gentlemen, the work 
 done by your mission is of incalculable 
 benefit to India, and it cannot be suff- 
 ciently thankful to your kind-hearted coun- 
 trymen. What we want and pray for is 
 more extended work.” 
 
 Long conversation followed the reading 
 of this address, when the various points 
 were reiterated and emphasized. 
 
 FROM A PROMINENT HINDU JUDGE 
 
 The last quotation I will make is from 
 an address delivered in the presence of a 
 large Christian congregation and a few 
 Hindus by one of the highest Hindu gov- 
 ernment officials in southern India. The 
 address was prepared and read by Judge 
 Varada Rao Avergal, of Madura, court 
 being suspended for the time in order that 
 he might render this service, and give pub- 
 lic expression to his appreciation of the 
 Christian work done in the Madura Dis- 
 trict. We quote but a small part of the 
 address of the judge. 
 
 “The work of the mission may be con- 
 sidered in two aspects, viz., the Secular 
 and the Evangelistic. It is not too much 
 
 13 
 
to say that as regards the Secular branch 
 of its work, primary education, the educa- 
 tion of girls and of the lower classes and 
 the training of boys and girls for the work 
 of tuition is largely, if not mainly, carried 
 out by the American Mission. This duty, 
 be it the legitimate function of the state or 
 of the educated classes of the Hindu com- 
 munity, has been considerably neglected. 
 Whenever I am transferred on official duty 
 to a new district, it is with a feeling of 
 relief that I hear that the missionary is at 
 work in this special field of labor. We 
 Hindus are not so blind or bigoted as not 
 to recognize the manifold good results flow- 
 ing from the adoption of the Christian faith 
 by some of the communities who form the 
 population of southern India. In 1886- 
 1887 I had occasion to speak of the material 
 and moral advantages which a large portion 
 of the adjoining district of Tinnevelly had 
 derived from the adoption of the Christian 
 ' faith soon after the great triennial famines 
 of 1876-1877 and 1878. My official expe- 
 rience of over fifteen years has tended to 
 confirm the opinion which I had formed 
 upon actual observation in the Tinnevelly 
 district. As a citizen in his relation to the 
 state, and as a fellow subject in his rela- 
 tion to his neighbors, the Hindu, if he has 
 adopted the. Christian faith, has won the 
 
 14 
 
approbation of the ruling class and the 
 love and esteem of his fellow-subjects. In 
 his manner of domestic life, in the rules 
 of conduct which he prescribed to himself 
 for observance in society, in the ideals that 
 he sets himself to realize, he is a conspicu- 
 ous example to his confrere, who has not 
 followed him in his change of faith. So in 
 the material and physical advantages sur- 
 rounding him, we find his aims are higher 
 and better conceived than those of his 
 neighbors. . 
 
 “As far as I am able to gauge, the 
 attitude of the cultured and refined Hindu 
 gentlemen towards the Christian faith and 
 its professors is one of profound respect. 
 He is anxious to be taught and enlightened. 
 He admires the spirituality and the soul- 
 lifting character of Christ’s teachings. . . . 
 
 ‘There is, further, the medical branch 
 of our work which appeals most strongly 
 to the emotional side of our nature. That 
 work has evoked much practical sympathy 
 and cooperation: It is impossible in this 
 connection to forget Dr. Van Allen’s indi- 
 viduality, who by his almost unaided effort 
 has accomplished a work which is seldom 
 attempted with success without official 
 cooperation at its back. ‘These are results 
 of which even the most pessimistic may be 
 proud.... In the furtherance of this 
 
 15 
 
common aim, we are all as one, and are 
 fellow-workers. Each can give its sound 
 of encouragement, and it is with that feel- 
 ing that I, this evening, venture to think 
 that the Hindu community of Madura 
 wishes you Godspeed in your labors.” 
 
 Nearly all, if not all, of the writers of 
 the documents from which quotations have 
 been here taken bear university degrees, 
 and are recognized leaders among the Hin- 
 dus. The quotations made above constitute 
 but a small portion of the addresses from 
 which they are taken. Other addresses 
 were made to the Deputation from which 
 similar quotations might be taken, and 
 numberless private conversations with Hindu 
 gentlemen were confirmatory of the conclu- 
 ‘sion that the enlightened Hindus are care- 
 fully observing the work of Christian mis- 
 sions, and that they recognize its value, and 
 honor the missionaries who are doing it. 
 These addresses show some of the influence 
 and results of mission work not represented 
 by tables and statistics. ‘These mark the 
 movement of the thought and life of India. 
 
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