1855 Some interesting facts with reference to the work of the United Presbyterian Church in India under the care of The Board of Foreign Missions and The Women’s Board 2 THE BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS OF THE UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF N. A. 200 NortH FirrgEentH STREET, PHILADELPHIA, Pa. The Field The United Presbyterian Mission Field in India lies wholly within the Province of the Punjab and includes about one fifth of the population of the Province and one sixtieth of the population of the whole country. Near our border on the northwest is Afghanistan the only country in the world not yet open to mission- aries, and on the northeast the beautiful vale of Kashmir, adjoining which is the little known and unoccupied country of Thibet. During all the years of our missionary existence in India no other denomination has ever worked within the boundaries of our field with the exception of Roman Catholics and Seventh Day Adventists. It is exclusively United Presbyterian territory. oe Noes Beef foe Ke \_ PINOL CREE So re YAN by fies: ° i - “ \ se L a FAR NORTH IN INDIA Statistics of the United Presbyterian Mission in India PAOLO Lele LC cde Oe oot otek lier scete 22,159 square miles Population*of eld...) <2. 4,768,000 Mohammedans .... 3,242,240 68% Hindus and Sikhs.. 1,455,639 30% Christians and oth- ENS es Gene ard 70,121 2% The area of our field is about half that of New York or Pennsylvania. The population is exceeded by that of no state in the Union, except New York, Pennsylvania, and Illinois (the States containing our three largest cities). Number of cities and villages in our field .... 9,374 These, if placed side by side, would stretch all the way from New York to San Francisco—an unbroken line of villages. Missionaries on the field, January 1, 1921: OU OAINEG oy airs hae yr tee ene tate. enero te 31 TEAC ia ens pa hide oa dvi Sotto east SRS 4 Unmarried Women (including doctors) .... 49 IndianeOrdaineds Ministersy.1....1...«1cceurae on 52 There is an average parish of 57,445 people for every ordained minister in our field. In America the number of people to every Protestant minister is 594. In 1902 our Mission appealed for an increase of 180 missionaries, and funds in proportion, as imperatively needed to properly man the field with a view to its evan- gelization within a generation. No. of Missionaries on the field, 1902 .......... ou eee 2 e LO 20 een eae 84 INCREASE Mil Oey Gat acts ehs cinco ee oats were AT Still iackinesotthes 180, asked vf01 aa. ahi ae) 133 The Indian Pastor Our Church has 52 or- dained Indian men, a Christian community of 70,121, and is responsible for a population of 4,- 768,000. Among these pastors one only is a college graduate. The accomplishments of our Punjabi pastors must be measured not only by the heights attained, but by the depths from which they have come. The Church in the Pun- jab does not lack her poets, scholars, translators, ora- tors and spiritual leaders. Greater than all, perhaps, in God’s sight, is the self- sacrificing “Self-Support” Pastor, who leaves behind the ease of an assured income as a Mission servant, and goes forth to the hardships and uncertain support of a village pastorate. This is the true missionary volunteer and hero of faith. Huis people are serfs, paid with a percent- age of the crop. When rain fails and crops are light, many a time the Pastor’s children go hungry to bed. Peculiar temptations assail him. A half truth would yield him a marriage fee. To oppose sin will cut off the support of a village. All our pastors are alive educationally. Amazing self-denial is shown in schooling sons and daughters. The story of many a girl studying in a village school might be read in sacrificial blood. The needs of the Church and the opportunities be- fore us demand at least the doubling of our force of ordained men. The Church in America can help— (1) By her prayers. (2) By the proper equipment of our preparatory schools. 6 The Session The United Presby- terian Church of the Punjab has 279 elders in 77 congregations, including 850 villages and a Christian popu- lation in organized congregations of 40,- 594. Of these congrega- tions only 43 have settled pastors. But this scarcity of pas- tors is only one of the difficulties confronting the elder in the infant Church of India. The majority of the elders are illiterate. Few were even born of Christian parents. Under tremendous handicaps the elder fights his own personal battles in the devil’s own strongholds. His father was a seavenger, the family altar a mud idol,-his pastor a filthy fakir, and his shadow a curse to his neighbor. Having learned a few Bible stories and received bap- tism in a great mass movement, he suddenly finds great burdens resting upon him. He is one of the people and yet is held responsible for upholding the ideals developed in other lands after a thousand years of progress. But he is not empty handed. His is the power and wisdom of the twice-born. These rugged and earnest men have saved the Church from the Roman propa- gandist from without and heathen customs within. His task is only begun. Will You Help Him in This Fight? (1) By your prayers for these village sessions, in their fight for clean morals against vice embedded and. entrenched in age-long customs and lethargy. (2) By providing schools to light the dark night where he labors. Get his viewpoint by studying India and her needs. 7 THE SYNOD OF THE PUNJAB The Organized Church Out of the raw material of the mass movement, the task of the missionary is to weld an organized, self- sustaining and self-propagating Church. This is no mean task. These seventy thousand people—two thirds of them heathen in name and deed fifteen years ago—are ignorant, poverty-stricken, downtrodden, yet we are glad to report that more than half the total membership of our Punjab Church is already within the bounds of organized congregations. We have 77 congregations. Of these 31 are self- supporting. There are 43 Indian pastors. This is only a beginning, for the removal of ignorance is a work of years of patient effort. Workers are inade- quate to the need, and the condition of extreme poverty makes self-support at best a precarious proposition. The people eke out a hand-to-mouth existence on the verge of constant famine. It is, therefore, much to their credit that so many of them are able to support pastors even at an average salary of $6.00 per month. The total contributions to church work of all kinds during 1920 were $8,351. This does not make a large showing on paper, but does it not represent greater devotion and more self- sacrifice than do the gifts of the American Church out of her abundance? The Lay Preacher One of the prominent figures in the Indian Church is the lay preacher. The fact that 95 per cent. of the village Christians cannot read makes it necessary to find some way of acquainting the people with Bible truth. The bulk of this work is done by lay preachers, who spend all their time going about in circles of villages teaching, preaching and ministering to the Christian community in many ways. The average parish is fifteen villages, though five is more than one man can properly teach. One is reminded of the old-time Methodist circuit riders. These men, however, walk. As a class they have limited education and ability, but nevertheless are doing a great work. They are teaching the word and laying the foundation of the future Church out in the villages. For this difficult and important work they receive the hand- some salary of $5.00 per month. 9 AUDIENCE IN A CITY STREET Open Air Preaching There is not much difficulty in gathering a crowd to listen to a speaker in the streets of an Indian city. It is usual to have two or more conduct such a service of “bazaar preaching.” Generally a song is sung to give notice to the crowd to gather, then a definite clear presentation of the gospel is made by one or more speakers. Whether or not the audience is a constantly increasing one, a shifting one, or one that melts away, depends largely upon the ability of the speaker to state his case. Often while one is speaking others of the party circulate through the crowd, selling scriptures or scripture portions. By means of such meetings as these great numbers of people have heard the message and have first been interested in it. 10 The Growth of the Church 7O12ZL , che Christian Com- munity has increased nearly six-fold in the last twenty years. The Church Membership has increased from 11,159 in 1905 to 24,352 in 1910 to a ff fs. 30,689 in 1915, and to 00 80H ID IIS 36,990 in 1920, GROWTH OF CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY The number of Organized Con- eregations has had a two-fold increase in the last decade, four- fold in the last two decades, thirty-two-fold in four decades. GROWTH OF ORGANIZED CONGREGATIONS Of these there was in 1900 but one Self-Supporting Congregation. In 1905. there were 12; in 1920, there were 3l. THE LITTLE MUD SCHOOLHOUSE Village Schools There are 206 village schools in our Mission in India, with a total of 8,895 pupils. Of these, 3,882 are Christian and 5,013 are non-Christian. Each year shows a growing interest in the cause of education. Our aim should be at least to give an opportunity to all our Christian children to attend school. There are 16,000 Christian children between 5 and 15 years of age, three fourths of whom at present are not in school. How long will we have to wait until we can give this opportunity to the children who are the hope of the Indian Church? AVALON HIGH SCHOOL, PATHANKOT Schools for Girls No other part of the work in India means more for the upbuilding of the Kingdom and for the evangelization of the land than the girls’ boarding schools. In these schools are gathered little girls from villages and towns where their environment is hopelessly degrading. For at least a few months, and often for eight or ten years, these girls are put under the direct influence of American missionaries with their high ideals and their great passion to serve the little ones. Some of the girls, having passed through these schools, are now studying for their degrees in the Punjab University. There are in the villages many schools that admit girls; there are five boarding schools for girls, those at Sialkot, Pasrur, Sangla Hill and Sargodha taking them through primary or grammar grades, and the one at Pathankot through the high school course preparing them for college. . 13 GORDON COLLEGE, RAWALPINDI Higher Education The Mission has one College whose prosperity may be indicated by its growth in one decade from an attend- ance of 77 to an attendance of 184. | The Government of India pays annually to Gordon College a sum which is equivalent to the interest on $85,000 at 4 per cent., and is ready to increase this amount when additional Americans are added to the staff. The Government of India puts in dollar for dollar in buildings, furniture or library. Has any institution among our Church Colleges such a friend as this? Four hundred dollars will put a Christian student through four years of college work. The money required to put one student through one of our American Church Colleges will put four Christian students through Gordon College with B. A. degrees from the University of the Punjab. Re-read the above if you are looking for a living and growing institution in which to invest your money. 14 Growing School Attendance 14 A7L The total attendance of boys and girls in all our mis- sion schools is shown by the height of the columns, in- creasing from 680 in 1870 to 14,471 in 1920. The number of Christian pupils is shown by the black portions—a most encouraging increase during this time. 15 THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY AT GUJRANWALA Training the Ministry The presence of a large and growing Indian Church, untaught and without capable leaders, places a tre- mendous responsibility on the Theological Seminary. It is well equipped, and a full theological course is taught, with practical work in nearby villages. Its usefulness is only limited by the slowness of the Indian Church to realize the need of native leadership and the failure of a sufficient number of individuals to hear the call of God to the gospel ministry. The number this year receiving training is 15. It is in this institution that there must be trained the men who will be responsible for the found- ing and building of a strong Indian Church. Pray with us that God may call out of the Indian Church a large number of capable, Spirit-filled men and thrust them into the gospel ministry. 16 GOOD SAMARITAN HOSPITAL AT JHELUM The Ministry of Healing Two lady missionaries come to make their first visit to K———.,, a village in Jhelum District. They are met by Sher Khan, the headman. He asks, “Why have you come here?” ‘They say, “To visit the women.” He asks, “Who are you?” ‘We are Christian missionaries.” “Then you cannot come in. There is no God but God, and Mohammed is his prophet.” A year later the Doctor Miss Sahiba is on tour at this very place. Sher Khan’s wife is sick, dangerously ill. He begs the Doctor to come and see his wife. But she says, “You know I will tell her about Jesus if I come.” He says, ‘Never mind, tell her what you wish, only do what you can to make her well again.” What the one could not do, the other has easily accomplished. For years our Mission has been asking that especi- ally qualified men surgeons be sent out, and a thoroughly equipped hospital for men be opened in our field. At last our hopes are being realized. The new general hospital on our frontier is now being built at Taxila, the ancient capital of Alexander the Great in 325 B. C., and two doctors are on the field. ays PREACHING IN FRONT OF THE BOOKSHOP Selling God’s Word in the Punjab A missionary on a railway trip of 558 miles sold 32 New Testaments. Another man sold 6 New Testaments on a railway trip of 14 miles. A Mohammedan convert sold 1,141 gospel portions in 5 months. A band of workers sold 2,077 gospel portions in a week. One man in one year sold 333 New Testaments. Total sales in our Mission during 1920—10,767. 18 MOSLEMS AT PRAYER The Mohammedan Problem India contains 66,000,000 Mohammedans—more than any other one country in the world,—more than all of Africa. Of these, 12,000,000 are in the Punjab; 3,242,240 are in our field. The proportion for the whole of the Punjab is 51 per cent, The proportion for our field is 68 per cent. 19 (H. R. FERGER) A HINDU HOLY MAN The Hindu Problem When the Aryan conquerors of India came through the passes of the Himalaya Mountains, they took with them a very simple form of religion from which there has been developed within India the complex system of Hinduism, with its millions of gods, its countless shrines, and its holy men everywhere present. No country will rise above the moral level of the ideals of its religion. The ideals of Hinduism as embodied in its priests and fakirs will never serve to lift India to the place where she may hope to fulfill the mission for which God has created her. Only the power of God in Christ can trans- form the ignorant priests of Hinduism into priests of the Most High God. 20 A GROUP OF CATECHUMENS FROM THE “UNTOUCHABLES” The Mass Movement The aborigines of India are said to belong to the Dravidian race. The origin of this race is not known. Before the Aryans came into the northern part of India, these Dravidian people had a rude civilization. The Aryan people, superior in strength and organizing ability, have through the centuries reduced the aborigines to a condition of abject servitude and hopeless degradation. Hinduism has nothing to offer these people other than the position of the outcaste to which it has reduced them. Islam has proved helpless to elevate those who have accepted the creed of the Prophet. The Christian missionary carried to those dwelling in this hopeless darkness the news of the Light of the World, and within the past three decades thousands of these people have accepted Christ, received instruction, and been baptized and received into the Church. ‘Thousands more are waiting to be taught. 21 eee 5 a are 3 a A Most Encouraging Growth A Tremendous Task Still Before Us The white perpendicular The black indicates’ the columns show the increase by great masses of unconverted decades in the Christian Com- in our field: munity of our India Mission: Mohammedans 3,242,240 1855—1875 ..... 250 Hindus and 1875—1885 ..... 3,200 Sikhs and 1885—1895 ..... 6,000 Chuhras™2727 1455;639 1 895=—190 5" soi: 8,712 1905—1915 ..... 40,075 Total~ Dec 3s yet 9156633287 Totaltar oe: 4,697,879 The growth has been marvellous. Yet, at this rate, it will take generations to complete the work we have under- taken. 22 Names of Stations . Campbellpur . Gujranwala . Gurdaspur . Jhelum . Khangah Dogran . Lyallpur . Pasrur . Pathankot . Rawalpindi . Sangla Hill . Sargodha . Sialkot . Lafarwal Abbottabad Baddomali Bhalwal Chak Jhuma Chakwal Charwa Chiniot Chowinda COMICOe Cs On Cons INO — CAINS a) Dhariwal Dinanager Domeli Eminabad Fateh Jhang Gujar Khan Jaranwala Khushab Lalhan Madhopur Martinpur Murree Pind Dadan Khan Pindi Gheb Qila Soba Singh Sanghoi Shahpur Shakargarh Shekhupura Tallagang Note.—The stations numbered are already occupied; the unnumbered ones are proposed in the N. W. M. Survey.