S ^ 
 
 ^9 
 
 THE BIBLE TESTED; 
 
 IS IT THE BOOK FOR TO-DAY AND FOR THE WORLD? 
 
 C|c in ;|nliia. 
 
 
 A SERMON PREACHED BY APPOINTMENT BEFORE THE 
 
 funcvicivu <^odetg, 
 
 In the- Fourth Ayenne Fresbyferian Church, Tork City, 
 
 May 5th,- /878. 
 
 JACOB CHAMBERLAIN, M.D., D.D., 
 
 MI93IONAKT IN THE ARCOT MISSION, INDIA, OF THE REFORMED CHURCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 NEW YOEK: 
 
 AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, 
 
 INSTITUTED IN THE TEAR MDCCCXVI. 
 
 1879. 
 
 M 
 
 
[FROM THE MINUTES OF THE SOCIETY, MAY 9, 18T8.] 
 
 At the Annual Meeting of the American Bible Society, held 
 at the Bible House this day, the following resolution was unani- 
 mously adopted : 
 
 Besolved, That the thanks of this Society be presented to the 
 Rev. Jacob Chamberlain, M. D., of India, for the valuable Discourse 
 delivered by him in this city on Sabbath evening last, in behalf 
 of this Society, and that a copy of the same be requested for 
 publication. 
 
THE BIBLE TESTED; 
 
 Is it the Book for To-Day and for the World ? 
 
 “The law of the Lord is perfect .” — Psalm xix. 7. 
 
 The word “ law,” or the expression, “ the law of the 
 Lord,” is used in two senses in the Bible: the first coniines 
 it to the law of Moses. 
 
 On iny recent journey home from India, after passing 
 up through the length of the lied Sea, I turned aside and 
 went down through the desert, and came to and climbed 
 to the summit of Mount Sinai. I stood on tlie very spot 
 where, thirty-three centuries before, amid thunderings and 
 lightnings, that law was delivered by Jehovah to ]Moses. 
 I looked out on that beautiful, triangular plain, some five 
 miles long by three broad, shut in by high mountains on 
 every side, and coming up to the foot of the almost per- 
 pendicular Sinai — “the mount that might be touched” — 
 from every part of which plain the summit of the mount 
 might be seen, and the cloud resting on the mount. I 
 remembered that, when that law was delivered, all of 
 the worshippers of the true God, Jehovah, in the then 
 world, were gathered on that plain waiting for their divine 
 orders — for that law, the observance of which should make 
 them “ a peculiar people ” — until the time when the Xaza- 
 rene should appear, and, breaking down the encircling- 
 walls of exclusiveness, should gather in all nations, even 
 us Gentiles, unto himself; and I thought how all-important 
 was it that the law then and there delivered should be 
 “ perfect.” And it is perfect. The learning, the sagacity, 
 the ingenuity of all succeeding ages have utterly failed 
 
 3411 
 
4 
 
 THE BIBLE TESTED; OB, 
 
 to produce so perfect a code of morals as was there pro- 
 claimed. This Christianity’s worst enemies have always 
 admitted. Aye, the “moral law” successfully challenges 
 the admiration of the whole world as a perfect law. 
 
 But the expression, “ the law of the Lord,” is used in a 
 l)roader sense. It means, the whole revealed will of God, 
 as contained in the book called “ the Bible.” And in this 
 its broadest sense, we are i>repared to fling down the 
 gauntlet and challenge the contradiction of the world, 
 while we declare and maintain that “ the law of the Lord 
 is perfect.” 
 
 I. First, take it as a literary production. Where do we 
 tind such sublime poetic imagery as in the Bible ? where 
 such exactness and accuracy of historic detail, as evidenced 
 by known profane history, and more and more by each 
 successive Assyrian and Egyptian discovery ? where snch 
 majestic soarings of prophetic vision ? where such faithful 
 l>ortrayal of character in biography ? where snch intensity 
 and sublimity of the righteous denunciation of the wrong ? 
 where such inimitable pleadings with those who needlessly 
 are “ weary and heavy laden f” where such winning por- 
 trayals of the divine life in man, as in the parables that 
 Jesus spoke I 
 
 But there is another test of literary productions, which 
 but few books indeed can stand. Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s 
 Progress has stood that test measurably well ; but how 
 many other books are there that can ? I mean the test of 
 translation into diverse languages of dissimilar peojde, of 
 diflerent modes of thought and varied forms of expressing 
 their thoughts and conceptions. Shakspcare translated 
 into French, we are told, is emasculated; how if translated 
 into Chinese? How would Mrs. Fartinfiton sound in 
 German? Longfelloiv, or Tennyson., in Hottentot? Irving in 
 Arabic ? or Whittier in Choctaw ? The Bible h;is stood this 
 crucial tost in the languages of all (luarters of the globe. 
 And in this matter I speak from some experience and from 
 extended observation ; for — having been engaged for years 
 
THE BIBLE IN INDIA. 
 
 in the work of translating the Scriptures from the Hebrew 
 into one of the most polislied of the hingua<»:es of the East ; 
 having;:, in my journeys, visited the mission stations of forty 
 ditferent missionary societies, labouring in twenty-nine 
 ditferent languages ; and having conv’ersed with many of 
 those engaged in translating the Bible into those lan- 
 guages, as well as with others, in Enroi)e and America, 
 engaged in similar work — I know whereof I affirm when I 
 rei)eat the declaration, that the Bible has stood this crucial 
 test of translation in the languages of all quarters of the 
 globe. From Greenland to Patagonia, in the western hem- 
 isphere; from Iceland through Europe and Asia to the 
 .Japanese and the Australians, in the eastern; from the 
 Copts of Egypt to the Kafirs of South Africa; from the 
 South Sea Islands of the Pacific through the oceans to 
 Madagascar — the Bible has been rendered into their lan- 
 guages with triumphant success. 
 
 Moses’s history of the creation and of the early world ; 
 .Joshua’s wars and marches; the defeats and victories un- 
 der the judges and kings; David’s penitential i)rayers and 
 psalms of praise; Solomon’s peerless proverbs; Isaiah’s 
 splendid imagery; Jeremiah’s doleful lamentations ; Luke 
 the physician’s wonderful life-pictures of Christ on earth, 
 and of the founding of the early Christian church ; Paul’s 
 masterly orations at Athens, and before the Sanhedrim 
 and Felix, and his doctrinal epistles, so full of strong meat ; 
 John’s marvellous revelation — these all come with the 
 same force, and adaptedness, and sweetness, and convic- 
 tion, in each of the two hundred and eleven languages 
 into which the divine Book has been alread}^ translated, 
 and witness to us that, in this respect, it is perfect. 
 
 II. Again, take the Bible in its adaptedness to all the 
 races and peoples, as well as languages, of mankind. And 
 in this respect, the American Bible Society has taken its 
 full share in putting the Bible to the proof, for it has 
 scattered it among all peoples. Are you aware, my friends, 
 how cosmopolitan this Society is ? You know of its work 
 
THE BIBLE TESTED; OR, 
 
 
 at home, but how many of you know of the extent of its 
 work abroad, in all the corners of the earth ? Aye, fathers 
 and brethren — officers and managers of this Society — do 
 you yourselves clearly realize how extensive is the work 
 which you are carrying on? It has fallen to my lot, during 
 the last score of j'ears, to witness some of the workings of 
 your Society in the distribution of Scriptures in widely- 
 separated localities, among x)eople speaking a score and a 
 half of languages; and I delight to bear my testimony, 
 to-night, to this phase of the Society’s work. I have, 
 myself, expended thousands of dollars of your funds in the 
 l)i’inting and circulation of Scriptures in five of the chief 
 languages of India. 
 
 I have seen your Bibles read and loved in the cities and 
 villages and plains of Madras — aye, in the regions there so 
 recently decimated by famine, many a convert to oim Jesus 
 has delighted to forget the gnawings of hunger, while, with 
 his dim eye, he read from your Scriptures of Him who 
 gives to his children the bread and the water of life. I 
 have seen it read with rapture all night long, in the native 
 kingdoms, by those who had that day for the first time, 
 and through the efforts of your Society, heard of and seen 
 the word of God. 
 
 I have seen it read and loved by the Telugus of Eajah- 
 mundry, and Ongole, and Cuddapah, and Kurnool; by 
 the Canarese i)cople of Mysore; by the Tamils of North 
 and South Arcot, and Salem, and Coimbatore; by the 
 Badagas of the Mountains ; by the Kois of the Godavery ; 
 and the Marathis of Bombay. 
 
 The Copts of Egypt I have seen gather under the 
 shadow of the Tyramids to read from your Arabic Scrip- 
 tures the story of Joseph, and ]\Ioses, and Jesus, in their 
 long ago sojourn there. 
 
 At Beersheba, and Hebron, and IMount Moriah, we 
 read again with a thrill, from your Scriptures, the story of 
 Abraham and the offering up of Isaac. 
 
 In Jerusalem, on jMount Zion, we joined an assembly 
 made up of the descendants of Ishmael and of Isaac, of 
 
THE BIBLE IN INDIA. 
 
 * 
 
 Shorn and of Ham and of Japlieth, while from a transla- 
 tion of the Bible, made at your expense, they read the 
 oracles of God. 
 
 At Shechem and Nazareth we found your Bibles. 
 
 At Sidon the noble Christian congregation were read- 
 ing from your Scriptures the prophecy of the destruction 
 of their city, and the sister city Tyre, and its wonderful 
 fultillineut. 
 
 At Beirut we found your presses busily sending off 
 their «iaily fruitage of leaves for the healing of the nations, 
 to the 150,000,000 who speak the Arabic tongue. 
 
 On the hills over Antioch 1,200 Christians gathered in 
 one assemblage to hear what this Bible was doing in 
 India, and read from your Bible, in the Armenian tongue, 
 the story of the formation of the first foreign missionary 
 society in their ancient city, more than 1,800 years before. 
 
 In Smyrna and other cities of the Seven Apocalyptic 
 ('hurches we found them trying to learn from your Scrip- 
 tures how to light again on their ancient candlesticks the 
 candles that had long gone out. 
 
 I have seen the workings of your Scriptures in Italy. 
 Rome and Florence, and 3Iilan and Bologna, and Naples, 
 can not shut out its light, and already there once more the 
 nuu’iiing star is rising. 
 
 In Calvin’s Geneva, your agent, M. Dardier, told me 
 of the wonderful workings of your Scriptures in the 
 Cantons of craggy Switzerland and the adjacent parts of 
 France. In the gay French capital I found your Scrip- 
 tures pointing men to the city of gold with gates of pearl. 
 
 Among the Esquimaux and Nascopies of Labrador I 
 found again your Bibles, and saw how the gospel for the 
 tropics is the gospel for the poles. 
 
 In the coloured churches of North and South Carolina, 
 and Georgia and Alabama and Louisiana, I have seen 
 devout Africans poring over the pages of your Bibles, and 
 have realized that neither race nor colour need diminish 
 aught, nor add unto the perfect teachings of God’s law. 
 
 The Russian soldier stirs with his bayonet the camp- 
 
8 
 
 THE BIBLE TESTED; OB, 
 
 fire to-night, that by its light he may read from Scrip- 
 tures you have given him that which will nerve him for 
 the morrow’s struggle in behalf of, as he believes, his 
 oppressed fellow Christians. 
 
 The South American republics and kingdoms are look- 
 ing in its pages, as scattered by your agents, to find what 
 it is that has raised America and England so far above 
 them. 
 
 The scattered Islands of the Seas are learning from it 
 that though scattered and separated they belong to the 
 same fold, with the same Shepherd, as we do. “ The isles 
 are waiting for His law.” 
 
 In Jai>an your Scriptures teach them that God rested 
 on and hallowed one day in seven; and already has the 
 Christian Sabbath displaced and replaced their multitudi- 
 nous and variable feast days and holy days, and its thou- 
 sand Christians are now, on their bended knees, thanking 
 that God who through its pages issued in that land of 
 darkness the fiat, “ Let there be light.” 
 
 The land of Sinim, slumbering through ages, is hear- 
 ing now, through your instrumentality, and obeying the 
 divine mandate, “Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise 
 from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” 
 
 Show me, if you can, the race -or people where the 
 Bibles issued by this Society have not to-day aroused the 
 conscience, quickened the love, stimulated the zeal, dis- 
 pelled the doubt, comforted the mourning, cheered the 
 dying, among the scattered sons of the first and of the 
 seeond Adam. 
 
 Since I first went to India, this Society has expended 
 more than one and a quarter millions of dollars in gold, in 
 giving the Jiible to the races of the earth outside of our 
 own country. It is because of this cosmopolitan work that 
 I, a foreign missionary, every fibre of whose existence is 
 wrought up in the missionary work, stand uj) on every 
 possible occasion to advocate the claims of tl)is Society on 
 the blood-bought throng of Christ’s sons and daughters. 
 I would not, if 1 could, turn all the stnvams of benevo- 
 
rilE BIBLE IN INDIA. 
 
 y 
 
 lence into the treasuries of our foreign missionary societies 
 — even of my own board. The liible must be translated, 
 and printed, and scattered everywhere, or no missionary 
 work could be done. X missionary without the Bible ! 
 {IS well try to cook without fire or heat ; as well try 
 to sail a ship without w{iter; as well try to propel {i 
 stt*amer without steam; {is well try to breathe without 
 {lir. If the printing and benevolent distribution of the 
 Bible ce{ise while yet the mitious are arrayed in hostility 
 to Christ, then let it be announced to the world that the 
 soldiers of Christ’s kingdom have laid down their arms. 
 Let it ce{ise, and all the powers of darkness will rise and 
 claim the victory {is nearly won. Aye, the very imps of 
 hell will hold a jubilee, for it is darkness tluit they love, 
 and the Bible gives light. 
 
 III. But again, hike the Bible as an engine devised for 
 the performance of {i certain work, and test it well and 
 .see whether it does that work or no. The Bible contains 
 a plan devised for the redemption and elevation of man- 
 kind. T{ike the Bible, then, as an engine thus devised for 
 the performance of a certain work, and test it well and 
 see whether it does that work or no. And it is to this 
 view of the subject that I particularly ask your attention 
 this evening. 
 
 Is this old Bible, given centuries ago among the 
 Jewish people, noiv calculated to do the work for which 
 it w{is designed ? or, in this day of progress and of the 
 intermingling of nations, do we find it antiquated, and 
 its day of adaptedness and usefulness passed away ? This 
 is, emphatically, an age not alone of changes, but of 
 improvements. Fast mail-trains and the telegraph have 
 taken the place of the old mounted mail-carrier, with his 
 mail-bags thrown over the horse upon which he rode. The 
 four and six horse stage-coach has given way to palace 
 cars. The quiet stitching of the seamstress is replaced by 
 the hum of the sewing machine. There is scarcely a piece 
 of machinery, of any kind, now in use that was used even 
 
10 
 
 THE BIBLE TESTED; OB, 
 
 by our grandfathers, books, new systems of sciences, 
 
 new methods in the arts — all, all is new. Have we made 
 a mistake, then, in holding on to our “old Bible” too 
 long ? If so, let ns acknowledge it like men and try to 
 replace it with something better; but first let us put it to 
 the lU’oof and see. 
 
 Xow, in testing a machine or engine it is necessary to 
 try it in all the different circumstances in which it is to be 
 employed, especially' in the worst. For example : when I 
 was in India, during the war in America, the government 
 of India sought to introduce the best machinery for 
 ginning, and spinning, and weaving the cotton growing 
 there. A proclamation was issued, and published in every 
 country where machinery was made, offering a princely 
 premium for that machinery that should best do the work. 
 And when, after near a year for preparation, tbe machinery 
 was gathered from the foiir quarters on the banks of the 
 sacred Ganges, when the viceroy and his council and the 
 judges had assembled to test it, it was tried not alone 
 with the cotton grown there on the banks of the Ganges, 
 but cotton was brought from the base of the Himalaya 
 Mountains, and from the plains of Tinnevelly, near Cape 
 Comorin, from the hill country of Berar, and from the 
 })lains of Bellary, and the country about Bombay; and the 
 machinery that best did the work in all, the long staple 
 and the short, the coarse and the fine, it was that that 
 won the prize, and that is now doing the work in India. 
 So if an ocean steamer be launched, it must be tried not 
 alone on the smooth waters of the bay or river on whose 
 banks it was constructed, for until it has crossed the 
 ocean, breasting the mountain billows in a storm, no one 
 can tell whether after all it be a safe vehicle for human 
 life. So with every kind of machinery — it must be tested 
 in the worst circumstances in which it will be called to act. 
 
 For the last score of years I have been engaged in 
 putting the Bible to just such a test, and that in the 
 most unju’opitious circumstances. 
 
 India is Satan’s stronghold. Hinduism, with its hand- 
 
THE BIBLE IN INDIA. 
 
 11 
 
 maid caste, weaves iron fetters around its votaries. With 
 much of truth in its scriptures, the V4das, it has degen- 
 erated into the worst of polytheism and idolatry ; with its 
 defective view of God and man, it luis had no couser v- 
 atiug, elevating iutlneuce over its votaries. The Hindus 
 are at ouce a very religious, and a grossly immoral peo- 
 ple. lutelligeut, sharp, quick-witted, immutable in their 
 nature, wedded to their ancient system, which is a splen- 
 did one though false, the Brahmiuists are the most able 
 and determined adversaries of what they term the “ new 
 religion.” If the Bible will work in India, then we may 
 safely conclude that it will work anywhere. How, then, 
 does it work in India? Let us test it in various ways 
 and see. 
 
 And first: Docs this ^^old Bible, given so many centuries 
 ago among the Jews, describe the human heart of to-day, and 
 the condition of man in different lands ? or is it antiquated 
 and defective in this respect? 
 
 On a certain occasion, some fourteen years ago, I went 
 into a native city in India, where the name of Jesus had 
 never been heard, there for the first time to show them 
 and give them these Scriptures, and to preach to them of 
 Christ and his salvation. As an introduction, when we 
 had assembled an audience in the street, I asked my native 
 assistant to read the first chapter of Romans — the chapter 
 a part of which has been read in your hearing to-night ; 
 that chapter which those who call themselves liberal- 
 minded tell us is too black to be true; that chapter that 
 describes the heart of man wandering away from God and 
 into sin, and conceiving vile conceptions of God, and then 
 wandering away farther, until at last, “ though they know 
 the judgments of God, that they which do such things are 
 worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure 
 in them that do them the chapter which many tell us is 
 a libel upon human nature. That chapter was read. The 
 most intelligent man in the audience, a Brahmin, stepped 
 forward and said to me, “ Sir, that chapter must have 
 been written for us Hindus. It describes tis exactly.^ The 
 
12 
 
 THE BIBLE TESTED; OR, 
 
 photograph was recognized. It had been taken centuries 
 before, and among a Jewish people; but the artist was 
 divine, and the heart that was photographed was that, not 
 of a but of a man. 
 
 On another occasion I went into another city, there 
 also for the first time to proclaim Christ as the way of life. 
 As we entered the native town and passed up the main 
 street, I noticed a small Hindu temple, built upon the side 
 of the busiest street, with its doors oi)eu and the idols in at 
 the farther end, so that passers-by could worship as they 
 went. At the side of the door sat the Brahmin priest of 
 the temple on a pedestal, unclad down to the waist — that 
 he might receive the homage, the semi-divine worship 
 which the peojile were wont to render him — with a platter 
 by his side to receive their offerings as they went in and 
 out of the street to their business or their work. I noticed 
 it and passed on. Going up the main street, and looking 
 here and there and finding no better place, we came back 
 to this temple ; and as I politely asked permission of the 
 Brahmin to address an audience from the steps of the 
 temple, he as politely gave his permission; and singing a 
 song to bring the people together, we soon had the street 
 packed with those who wondered what we had come for, 
 and I preached to them. I took for my theme “ the char- 
 acter of any being whom the intelligent mind of man 
 in any land would be willing to call God ;” and from the 
 necessities of our natures, I attempted to show them that 
 • in order to call any being God, we must believe him to be 
 stronger than we and stronger than any powers that might 
 be arrayed against us; that he must be omnipotent, or 
 we could not trust him ; that he must be wiser than we 
 and wiser than any intelligences that might be combined 
 against us; that he must be omniscient; that he must be 
 able, in all parts of his dominion, at the same time, to l)e 
 and to notice all passing events ; that he must be omni- 
 present; that he must be a God of love, a God of justice, 
 and so on. I had painted to them the character and attri- 
 butes of God as we find them given in our Bible — not 
 
THE BIBLE IN INDIA. 
 
 13 
 
 telling' them where I found the picture, but drawing this 
 characterization of God from the necessities of the soul 
 of man. 1Mie intelligent men in the audience at once 
 acknowledged the picture to be a correct one, as I went on 
 from point to i)oint, and admitted what I said to be true. 
 At last, completing the picture, 1 .said to them, “Now, 
 who is God, and where is God?” The Brahmin prie.st sit- 
 ting there on his pedestal, seeing how intently the audi- 
 ence of his worshippers were listening to my description of 
 God, so ditfereut from that enshrinetl in the temple at my 
 side, and seeing at a glance, with his keen mind, that if this 
 description of God was accepted as true his employment 
 was gone, seeking to create a diversion, straightened him- 
 self up, and with his linger drawing a line around his 
 stomach, he said, “ Sir, this is my God; when this is full, my 
 God is pro[»itions ; when this is empty, my God is angry. 
 Only give mo enough to eat and drink, and that is all the 
 God I want.” Turning to this .same old Book, I gave him 
 that scathing deunnciatiou of I’anl of those “ whose God 
 is their belly, whose glory is in their shame, and whose end 
 is destruction.” And then turning again to the audience 
 and remiiuling them of the pure and holy character that 
 1 had described, I told them that “ this poor, miserable 
 wretch here is w illing to call his belly his God.” Amid the 
 sneers and scorn of his own worshippers, he sprang from 
 his pedestal, slank around the corner of the temple, and 
 vanished down a side street. And oh, how" the audience 
 listened wdiile I described to them Him in Avhom all the 
 fullness of this Godhead was manifested bodily, even Jesus 
 of Nazareth, the Saviour of all of them, in all the world, 
 that will believe in him ! 
 
 On another occasion I was reading from the seventh 
 chapter of Romans that declaration of Paul of the power 
 of sin over us, Avhere he says, “ When I w"ould do good, 
 evil is present with me, and the good which I would I do 
 not, but the evil which I w ould not that I do.” As I read 
 it the most intelligent man in my audience spoke up, say- 
 ing, “ That is it ! that is it ! That is exactly what is the 
 
14 
 
 THE BIBLE TESTED; OR, 
 
 matter with us Hindus. Xow, does your Book tell us how 
 we can get rid of that evil disposition, and do the good 
 we would and avoid doing the evil that we would not f ” 
 How gladly, from this same old book, did I point them 
 to Him who can create a new heart and renew a right 
 spirit within us ; who can give us not only the desire, but 
 the power to do good : “ For I can do all things through 
 Christ who strengtheneth me.” 
 
 On another occasion and in a different city I read the 
 description in the forty-fourth chapter of Isaiah, of the 
 making and worshipping of images. When I had comple- 
 ted the reading, a sharp man in the audience, a Brahmin, 
 stepped out and said, “Now, sir, we have caught you. 
 You told us that this was an old book, given long ago in 
 another part of the world to tell us how we might find 
 God, and, how- worshipping him we might attain to peace 
 with him ; but, sir, that that you have just read you have 
 written since you came here and saw how we Hindus 
 managed it.” The photograph once more was recognized. 
 
 But again, can this Book he understood hy high and 
 low, rich and poor, learned and ignorant f Can this Bible 
 that was given to a people prepared through generations 
 by a special training, and standing on a verj' different 
 moral plane from the Plindus of Hie present day — this 
 Book with its pure and holy doctrines, its strange, though 
 beautiful and sinijile plan of salvation — can it be under- 
 stood by those Hindus who have sunken through centu- 
 ries of moral pollution — can it be understood so as to aftect 
 their lives and their character ? 
 
 Come with me to a little town 150 miles to the north- 
 west of my station at Mudnapilly, in India. Some fifteen 
 years ago there lived there a Hindu, au unlettered man — 
 he could simply read and write, and that was all — who 
 felt the burden of sin and desired relief. He had tried all 
 that his system taught him, and still found no jieace of 
 conscience. There came the time of the annual drawing 
 of the idol car (usually called the car of .Juggernaut), in 
 a city .some thirty miles away, and this man, mourning 
 
THE BIBLE IN INDIA. 
 
 15 
 
 over liis sin, wcnit there, for they told liiin if he would 
 engage in the ceremonies there and join in the drawing 
 of the car the burden of sin would be gone and he could 
 tind relief. He went there. The tirst day passed, and the 
 second day of the festivities was nearly through. That 
 night it would close, and he felt yet the burden of sin. 
 He knew that he had not got relief. He saw standing in 
 the crowd a man with a book, wrapped in his garments ; 
 he saw’ the end sticking out, and asked, “ Stranger, wdiat 
 book is that you have got there ? ” Said he, “ Thej’ call it 
 the Kotta Xibandana^^ (the New Testament). “What is 
 that?” “Why, they say it is the Satti/a Vf da," {the True 
 Veda, as w’e term the Bible iu India, iu distinction from 
 their Vedas which w’C do not acknowledge as true). 
 “Have you read it?” “No, 1 have not.” “What does 
 it tell about, anyhow’ ? ” “ Why, they say that it tells us 
 
 how to get rid of sin.” “Does it; will you .sell it?” 
 “Yes.” “ How much will you take for it?” “ Well, give 
 me half a rupee,” (tw’cnty-five cents). “ All right.” He 
 took out the money and gave it to the man and took the 
 book, wrai)ped it up, put it under his arm and went away- 
 When he got home he opened it at the first chapter of 
 Matthew, and stumbled and tumbled <lowu over those 
 jaw-breaking names in the genealogy of Christ, worse for 
 a Hindu than they are for us to pronounce. He thought 
 that after all there was not going to be anything in the 
 book that he could understand, and that he had lost his 
 money ; but he got through at last, and came to the story 
 of the miraculous birth of the child Jesus; that he could 
 understand. He read on, and read the story of his wonder- 
 ful childhood, and his marvellous life, his miraculous 
 deeds, and the messages of mercy that he gave to all 
 around him; and then, when he was beginning to think 
 that he must be the one that should redeem all lauds, he 
 came to the story where he was killed and nailed upon a 
 cross. Oh, it was all up then, he thought; but he read 
 on amid his tears ; he read of his lying in the grave, and 
 then of that wonderful coming forth again from the grave. 
 
16 
 
 THE BIBLE TESTED; OR, 
 
 and of the scene when he appeared to his disciples, and 
 with astonishment he read how on Mount Olivet, parting 
 the clouds, he ascended to heaven ; and then he turned 
 over and read again in the next Evangelist, in fewer words, 
 the story of the same life. Then he read on in a third 
 Evangelist that same story, that is never repeated too 
 often — Luke’s graphic life-picture of Christ on earth. Then 
 he came to the fourth Evangelist, and there he read of the 
 divine sonship of that Jesus of Nazareth, the Word that 
 became flesh and dwelt among us ; and he learned there 
 of our connection with Christ, the branch with the vine, 
 how he would remain with us ; then he read the story of 
 the founding of the early Christian church. That gave 
 him more light. He read the doctrinal epistles, and feel- 
 ing the burden of sin as he did, he did not stumble over 
 those hard doctrines as some on this side of the water do. 
 He read that story, that Avonderful revelation of the New 
 Jerusalem comiug down fi’om heaven out of God, the 
 home of all those that believe in Jesus, when they shall 
 arise and meet him. 
 
 Ah, that Avas the book for him. He read in the book 
 that they Avere not to forget the assembling of themselves 
 together on the flrst day of the Aveek, as the manner of 
 some is — of some perhaps in this country too — and on the 
 first day of their week, Avhich, singularly, synchronizes 
 with our Christian Sabbath, he gathered his neighbours 
 iu his owu house to hoar him read from “ the wonderful 
 Book.” He taught his Avife to read, a strange thing for 
 a Hindu to do, as they never used to teach their Avomen 
 to read; but he taught her to read in order that she might 
 be able to read from “the Book.” He learned in that, 
 “When ye pray thus shall ye say, ‘Our Father Avhich 
 art in heaven ; ’ ” and as they assembled thus otj each Sab- 
 bath day they joined, after reading the word, in repeating 
 that ])rayer. Some years ]>assed by and the man died. 
 When he died he tohl his Avife that they must not burn 
 his body as the Hindus are Avont to do, but bury it, 
 for Christ Avas buried; that they must not perform any 
 
TIIK BIBLE IN fNDIA. 
 
 IT 
 
 heathen ceremony over his g'rave, but read from “ the 
 liook” and re[)eat “the prayer,” and leave him tliere with 
 ( iod ; for as Christ arose from the <lead so would he some 
 da}' arise and meet that Christ in heaven. His wife kept 
 up the reiKliug, on the lirst day of the week, to the people 
 from this book. Years more passed by. At last there 
 came two missionaries into a villai^e some lifteeu miles 
 from this place. They were preachin^^ there to the people, 
 as they sui)posed for the lirst time that they had heard of 
 Christ and his salvation, when two men that happened to 
 be there in the market-place stepped forward and said, 
 “ Why, sirs, what you say is exactly what the man of 
 ‘ the Book ’ down at our village used to teach.” They 
 asked about it and learuetl the story. They went down 
 there and found to all intents and purposes a little church 
 of Jesus Christ established. It was the Book that had 
 done it. They had not received baptism nor the Lord’s 
 Supper to be sure, but they had that life iu their hearts 
 that wiis the baptism of the Holy Ghost. The Book had 
 shown that it could be understood and could produce its 
 eftect. 
 
 That was among the lowly; how among the higher 
 classes that have the Yedas, with their purer teachings, 
 the Brahmins of India? How does this Bible work among 
 them ? Is it adapted to meet their felt wants f 
 
 Some fifteen years ago I took a long journey of five 
 months through a native kingdom that had never before 
 been traversed, so far as I could learn, by any missionary, 
 and where the Scriptures had never been circulated. I 
 took the journey, an exploring and Bible distributing 
 journey, at the expense of the American Bible Society. 
 We were warned that we should meet with dangers and 
 difficulties. We did meet with them abundantly; but on 
 the way the Master gave us such cheering signs of his pres- 
 ence that we were willing to go on. We had been warned 
 not to go because of the danger, and were told that we 
 would never all of us get home alive ; but I read in my 
 commission, “ Go ye into all the world and preach the 
 
18 
 
 THE BIBLE TESTED; OR, 
 
 gospel to every creature.” It did not say, “except Hyder- 
 abad;” and believing my commission was to be carried 
 out I went, taking- with me four native assistants. I well 
 remember one Saturday when we had attempted to cross 
 a wide river in basket-boats, and had been swept down 
 the stream three miles in crossing. At last we had gained 
 the shore, but we had been delayed so long that it was 
 midnight, Saturday night, before we reached the town 
 where we wished to spend the night. Camping outside the 
 city we spent the rest of the night. Sabbath morning in 
 our camp we held our prayer meetiug, myself and four na- 
 tive preachers and attendants, reading from the word and 
 talking over the power and goodness of Christ ; and in the 
 afternoon we thought that though we had intended to rest 
 that Sabbath we must go out to the bazaar and tell the 
 people of this divine word. We went. A large audience 
 assembled around us. We preached to them of Christ 
 and his salvation. We distributed Scriptures and tracts 
 among them, and came back before sundown to our camp, 
 intendiug to lie down to rest very early, as we must start 
 on our journey at half-past four the next morning, as 
 was our wont ; when ere the sun had set a group of men 
 came out of the town with books in their hands saying to 
 us, “ Sirs, this is such wonderful news that you have told 
 us. Won’t you please come back and talk to us some 
 more about it. The idea of a way of getting rid of sin 
 without ourselves, by the help of a Divine Eedeemer ! It 
 is wonderful. Please come back and talk to us some more 
 about it.” AVe went back. The market-place wgs cov- 
 ered with India rugs and Persian rugs, and with pillows 
 for us to sit upon, for they said they wanted us to talk 
 longer than we could stand to talk. There were stakes 
 driven in the ground-door, with little native lamps on 
 them to light when it should grow dark, for they said they 
 wanted us to talk long after it was dark. They kept us 
 reading and talking until ten o’clock at night, and would 
 not let us go. When at last we told them that they must 
 allow us to rest, for we were very weary and had to start 
 
THE BIBLE IN INDIA. 
 
 !!♦ 
 
 early in the inoniin*!^, they allowed us to leave and we 
 went and laid dowu to rest. 
 
 At half-i)ast tour in the morning we had arisen ; our 
 carts were packed and we were just starting', when out 
 came a deputation from the town with hooks iu their hands, 
 with the leaves turned down here and there; for they 
 said they had been reading the hooks all ui»ht long, for 
 they were sure they would never have another chance to 
 .ask (piestions about them; and it was such strange news, 
 and so good if true, they wanted to he sure that they 
 understood all about it, and they had come to ask some 
 (piestious before I started. I said to my native assistants, 
 “ You go on. Three miles north of here, I understand, is 
 the town of Pebcri. As you are walking and I liav’c a 
 horse, you go on, and 1 will .stop and answer these (pies- 
 tious, and then canter on as rapidly as I can and over- 
 take you. If you get there before I do, go into the town 
 and otfer the Scriptures and tracts for sale.” We could not 
 give them away there. There was a reason for it that I 
 cannot stop here to exidain. “ You go on, and I will join 
 you as soon as I can.” They went on ; I stopped and 
 answered the (piestious. They asked a great many earnest 
 (piestious. When I attempted to mount my horse, they put 
 their hands on my shoulder and said, “ No, sir — you cannot 
 go until you answer some more questions.” I answered a 
 few more and tried to spring on my horse again and go on, 
 as I did not like to leave my native assistants to encounter 
 danger alone, if there were danger, and wished to hasten 
 on. But they said, “No, sir; answer some more questions ; 
 don’t go yet.” I stayed three-ipiarters of an hour and 
 then went forward to join my assistants. I cantered on as 
 rapidly as I could, and as I approached the town of Peberi, 
 which was a walled town with gates, I saw my native 
 assistants coming away from the town accompanied by 
 some natives. Speaking iu the Tamil language, which 
 was not understood by the people there, I said to them, 
 “Would not they let you go into the town? would not 
 they let you preach ? could you not dispose of any books ?’’ 
 
20 
 
 THE BIBLE TESTED; OR, 
 
 “ Yes, sir,” said they, “ we preached to a most intensely- 
 interested audience, and when we offered our books and 
 tracts for sale they bought every one of them ; we haven’t 
 a single one left; they paid for them all and wanted 
 more. We told them you had your saddlebags full of 
 books, and they have come out here to meet you and buy 
 more books.” 
 
 Turning to them, I said (in their own language, the 
 Telugu), “Brothers, I have plenty of books — you shall 
 have all you want. But first let us go back into the town, 
 and I will tell you some more about this wonderful news.” 
 We went back into the town. I saw that they were the 
 chief men of the place. There in the square before the 
 gate was the platform for the elders of the city to sit upon 
 and administer the affairs of the town, as in ancient Jewish 
 times. They escorted me to that platform and wished me 
 to sit with them. As I preferred to stand and talk, so that 
 I could be heard by a larger audience, they said they 
 would stand too, for they did not wish to sit while their 
 teacher was standing — it would not be ])olite. Standing 
 there, I proclaimed to them again the gospel of eternal life 
 through Jesus Christ. When I had done speaking, 1 took 
 my saddlebags from the horse and ottered them the books, 
 and at once there was a rush for the books. I gave out 
 book after book, and still they pressed upon me until every 
 book was gone, and then there were forty hands held out, 
 over the shoulders of those before them, with money in 
 tliem ; and they said, “ Here, sir, take what money you 
 l)lease, only give me a book that tolls about the Divine 
 Father that you have told us about.” — “ Give me a book 
 that tells about Jesus Christ and his salvation.” — “ Give 
 me a book that tells about heaven and how I can get 
 there.” — “ Take what money you please, only do give me a 
 book.” I tohl them, “ Brothers, I am very sorry 1 did not 
 know there were so many educated men here, and that so 
 many books would be wanted. 1 have a cart-load of books 
 that have gone on in advance, which 1 might have stopped 
 for you to buy all you want.” They said, “ How far has 
 
THE BIBLE IN INDIA. 
 
 21 
 
 the cart gone!” Jiulo^in^ from the time, I said that it 
 nui-st have ^?ot about three miles. They said, “If we 
 on and overtake the cart, will you stop it and let us buy 
 the books?” “ Certainly,” said I. They at once appointed 
 a deputation to ^o on and buy the books. Five wen* 
 appointed. As 1 had been talkinjj:, I particularly noticed 
 two who stood upon the platform, almost in front of me — 
 a Brahmin with vouerable white hair and noble brow, a 
 very courteous ami intelligent gentleman, and his son, ;is 
 1 judged from his countenance, standing at his side. They 
 had interrupted me now and then, as 1 was preaching, say- 
 ing to me, “Wait a moment, sir; won’t you explain that 
 point a little further? this is such strange news, we want 
 to be sure that we get it exactly right.” I would explain 
 the point and then go on, and soon they would stop me 
 again, asking intelligent questions, anxious to understand 
 ev^erything I said. They were among the deputation that 
 were appointed to go forward. The people put money in 
 their hands, each one telling them, “ Don’t you forget to 
 buy me a book.” — “ Buj' me a book that tells of Jesus and 
 his love.” — “ Buy me one of those books that tell about 
 the Creator, the Divine Father that loves us.” — “Get me a 
 book that tells how I can get I’id of my load of sin.” So 
 they commissioned them and sent them. AVe went out of 
 the gate of the city and turned into the pathway where my 
 carts had gone — native carts with wooden wheels, drawn 
 by young buffaloes. 
 
 AVe walked on for a time, they asking earnest questions 
 and I answering them, when they said, “ Sir, we are going 
 no faster than the carts are ; would you mind cantering on 
 to overtake the carts and stop them ; and then you must 
 talk to us some more.” I put spurs to my horse and rode 
 on. I had gone perhaps a mile and a quarter, and got 
 into the thick jungle that intervened between that town 
 and the next village, and was passing up a little tortuous 
 cart-track through the jungle when I heard the step of a 
 powerful horse apijroaching me from the rear. I had been 
 warned that in just such a place as that I would be assas- 
 
22 
 
 THE BIBLE TESTED; OR, 
 
 sinated. Thinking it always safest to face the danger, if 
 there be danger, I stopped my horse, turned around and 
 waited for the approach. Soon, around a bend in the road 
 I saw a powerful Arab charger coming, with saddle and 
 bridle bedecked with ornaments of silver and gold. Its 
 rider had a turban with gold-lace trimmings, and with a 
 necklace of pearls around his neck, with a jacket of India 
 satin interwoven with threads of metallic gold. He rode 
 rapidly on, and aijparently was about passing me when he 
 saw me, and pulling up his horse almost on to his haunches, 
 he said, “Are you the man that has been in my town this 
 morning with this strange doctrine?” I said, “I have 
 been in the town of Peberi, sir.” We had been told that 
 this town was the summer residence of a petty Pajah, a 
 feudatory of the Nizam of Hyderabad, but that at that 
 season of the year the Eajah was at his other capitol. He 
 said to me — for it was the Rajah himself, “ I came in late 
 last night from my other capitol. I supi)ose the people did 
 not know I was there. I got in late last night or early this 
 morning, and we were not stirring when your people came 
 so early. I suppose those were your men that came about 
 sunrise with the books; but some of my courtiers were 
 stirring and bought some of the books and brought them 
 to the palace, and we were so busy reading the books that 
 we did not know there was any second gathering in the 
 streets. I Avisli I had known it, I would have sent out and 
 asked you to come to the palace to tell us the news there ; 
 but when you had gone they brought some larger books, 
 saying that the white man himself had been there and 
 given them those books, and 1 was so anxious to see you 
 that I ordered my swiftest horse, and I have outridden all 
 my courtiers, as you see, to overtake you. Now, tell me 
 all about it. Is it true ? Is there a Saviour that ciiii .save 
 us from our sin?” We ro<lo on together, I on a little 
 scraggy country pony that had cost me thirty dollars, 
 looking up to him on his magnificent Arab charger worth 
 a thousand, and as I trotted along talking with him I 
 could not help thinking of Philip and the Eunuch; and I 
 
THE BIBLE IN INDIA 
 
 23 
 
 tried as earnestly, 1 believe, as I’hilip did to tell my cotn- 
 [>auiou of him of whom Closes in the law and the prophets 
 did speak — even flesiis of Nazareth the Saviour of all them 
 in all the world that would believe in him. 
 
 We overtook the cart. “ Now,” .said he, “ let me have 
 a copy of every book you have ; I don’t care what you 
 ask, I will pay for them.” One box aft(T another was 
 opened. He took out a book about the size of a small 
 pulpit liible, and .said he, “ What book is that ? ” “ That 
 
 is the Holy Bible, the Satya Veda, or True Veda, in the 
 Telugu language” — the language in which we were con- 
 versing. “Give me that.” Down it went on the ground. 
 He took up another, of one-third the size. “What is 
 that?” “That is the New Testament in the Canarese 
 language.” “Give me that ; ” and down it went. “What 
 is that?” — taking u[) another. “That is the New Test- 
 ament in the Hindiustani language.” “Give me that.” 
 “What is that?” “That is the New T<;stament in the 
 Tamil language.” “(Bve me that.” “What is that?” 
 “ That is the New Testament in the Marathi language.” 
 “ But,” said I, “ you don’t want all those, for this large 
 one contains the whole thing. These others contain part, 
 the best part to be sure, of the large one, in the different 
 languages. But it is the same thiug, verse for verse and 
 word for word, only that each is in a different language. 
 You know the Telugu language be.st. If you take the 
 large one in that language you have the whole;” for 1 
 wished to save some of these for use further on, in my 
 journey. “ No,” said he ; “ if you were to be here so that 
 I could ask questions, that large one would be enough for 
 me, but you are not going to be here, so I shall have no 
 one to ask questions of, and I will take it and read it in 
 the Telugu language, and I will perhaps not quite under- 
 stand it; then I will take it in the Canarese language, for 
 I can read that just as well, and it will be a little differ- 
 ently expressed, and by comparing the two I will under- 
 stand it; if not, then 1 will read it in the Hindustani 
 language, and comparing the three I will understand it 
 
24 
 
 THE BIBLE TESTED; OR, 
 
 better; or in the Marathi, or Tamil language, and com- 
 paring the four or live I shall be able to understand it all. 
 I don’t care what you ask for them, only let me have the 
 books. I will pay for them.” So he took them. 
 
 In the mean time the deputation came up. I found 
 that the Brahmin whom I had noticed so particularly was 
 the prime minister of the Eajah, his general manager, or 
 Mantri, as they call it in India, and the son was being 
 educated to succeed him in office. Thej* all asked earnest 
 questions, and kept me answering question after (piestion 
 and explaining the books for an hour and three-quarters? 
 there in the road, before they would allow me to hitch on 
 my oxen and pursue my journey. When they had bought 
 and paid for their books, and at last had consented that 
 I should pursue my journey, I bade them good-bye. But 
 as we went on om' way we could not help tbinking of 
 them and their earnest questions, and wondering whether 
 the words thus scattered had done any good. We jour- 
 neyed on, however, and at last after live months we came 
 around to our homes, stricken down by disease to be sure, 
 that we had contracted in those jungles, but all of us were 
 alive. We came back to our homes, and still Ave could 
 not forget those people. We wondered whether in that 
 town, where they had so gladly inet us and heard us 
 preach Christ, there would be any fruit from the seed we 
 had scattered. Three years passed by — years of sickness 
 with me to be sure, resulting from that journey, for I ha<l 
 not recovered from it yet. We Avere still thinking of and 
 praying for them, when the Lord allowed us to hear neAA’s 
 from them. A chance traveller came that Avay — not a 
 chance tra\ eller; nothing ever happens by chance. Cod 
 ordered, for the strengthening of my faith, and ]>erhaps 
 yours here to-night, that a traveller should come down 
 through that unfrequented way, and that he should be 
 overtaken by night at that very town of Pebdri. He Avas 
 a half-caste, half Portuguese and half Hindu. He stopped 
 in the rest-house built for travellers, by the gate of the 
 city. In the evening that very Mantri, the Kajah’s prime 
 
THE BIBLE IN INDIA. 
 
 25 
 
 minister, hearing that there was a stranger there who 
 dressed and appeared ditterently from the people there, 
 came out to meet him, and said he, “ Stranger, you seem 
 to have come from a distance; do you know anything of 
 the people they call Christians?” “ Yes, I am one myself.” 
 “Are you? I am glad of it. Stranger, do you know 
 anything about a white man that came through here 
 three years ago, in the month of August, with a book 
 that he called the True Veda, telling about the Divine 
 Redeemer, that he called Yem Kristit ?” (The Telugu for 
 Jesus Christ.) “ Y'es, Dr. Chamberlain is the only mission- 
 ary that has ever been through here. He came this way 
 about three years ago.” “ Do you know him ? Have you 
 ever seen him ? Is he living now ? and will you ever see 
 him again?” “Yes, I met him years ago away up north, 
 and in about a month 1 shall pass within about thirty 
 or forty miles of where he is now living.” Said he, 
 “If you get as near him as that, you turn out of your way 
 and tind him, for I want you to carry him a message. 
 Tell him that from the day he was here, neither my son 
 nor I have ever worshipped an idol. Tell him that every 
 dav we read in that New Testament that he left with us, 
 and every day we kneel and pray to that Yesu Kristu of 
 whom he taught us, and tell him that through his merits 
 we hope to meet him in heaven. Tell him the Rajah has 
 the Bible read every day in his palace, and we think 
 that he too at heart is a believer in Jesus. Tell him we 
 hope to meet him by-and-by when we can tell him all 
 about it — saved because he came here and brought us 
 those Bibles ; but if you go anywhere near him you turn 
 out of your way and tind him, and give him this message 
 now, for it will do him good.” And, oh, friends, it did do 
 me good. When I heard that message I forgot the diffi- 
 culties and perils of that journey. I forgot how we had 
 been surrounded by tigers at night, keeping the camp- 
 fires burning bright while we heard them roaring for prey 
 in the jungles around us. I forgot how I had been swept 
 away in the river. I forgot how we had been taken by 
 
26 
 
 THE BIBLE TESTED; OR, 
 
 the jimgle fever and deserted by all our coolies. I could 
 not remember any of these things then. I thought of 
 souls redeemed, and heaven’s mansions peopled, and I 
 said, “ If in that one village the Bible has done this, why 
 not in hundreds of other villages where we have left it ? ” 
 Aye, methinks I can see the throng assembled around 
 the great white throne, and it may be, that among that 
 throng some of those dusky sons or daughters of India 
 may come to one of you, and grasping your hand, say to 
 you, “ Brother, sister, you gave that dollar to the Ameri- 
 can Bible Society that printed that Bible that came away 
 out to Hyderabad, and told me how to reach heaven.” 
 “ Child, you gave that dime that printed the New Testa- 
 ment that told me how to get to heaven.” And in the 
 gladness of that hour, oh friends, will we ever, one of us, 
 regret that we have done so much for our Master ? Will 
 we not rather wish that we had joined hands in sending 
 this word of God into every palace and every hut on the 
 whole globe ? 
 
 Does this Bible change the character and the lives of 
 those who embrace itf I w'ould I could take you to a 
 little village near my station where they had embraced 
 Christianity in a body but eight months before, and where 
 the high priest of the tem})le near by, came secretly to 
 me in mj^ tent, and asked me, “ Sir, will you please impart 
 to me the secret ; what is it that makes that Bible of yours 
 have such a power over the lives of those that embrace 
 it ? Now, it is but eight months since these people joined 
 you. Before that they were (juarrelsome, they were riot- 
 ous, they were lazy, they were shiftless, and now see what 
 a ditference there is in them. Now they are active, they 
 are energetic, they are laborious, they never drink, they 
 never quarrel. Why, sir, I joined in the persecution when 
 they became Christians and tried to stamp out Christianity 
 before it gained a foothold here, but they stood firm, and 
 now in all tlie region around here the people all respect 
 and honour them. What is it that makes the Bible have 
 such a power over the lives of those that embrace itf 
 
THE BIBLE IN INDIA. 
 
 27 
 
 Oar Vedas have no such power. Tlease, sir, give me 
 the secret.” 
 
 Doea it sustain its recipients? Our first convert in the 
 new region, in the Telugu country where T went in 1803, 
 was a young Hrahinin. We knew that there was danger of 
 his being murdered and tried to guard him. But alter a 
 while — I cannot stoj) to give you thewdiole story to-night — 
 lie was decoyed away and taken over one hundred miles to a 
 town where his relatives lived. He was immured in a close 
 room. Nothing was left him but a cloth around his loins. 
 In the room there was naught but a grass mat for him to 
 lie on, with nothing to cover him. Day by day just a little 
 rice ami salt was placed there for him to eat, just enough 
 to keep body and soul together ; and be was told that he 
 should never come out alive unless he abjured his new- 
 fangled doctrines and came back to orthodox Hinduism. 
 His grandfiither, a wealthy man, otfered half his fortune 
 to the Brahmins if they would reconvert him. They 
 brought the logicians, the rhetoricians, and the priests of 
 all the region to argue with him. They had taken away 
 his Bible. They argued with him, and they kept him for 
 months. I have not time to tell you the thrilling story 
 of his escape, but at last he got back to us, all skin and 
 bones ; he had lost all his flesh, but had not lost his faith 
 and his trust in Jesus, nor his love for this Bible. He had 
 never denied Him. A year after that we met his uncles 
 who had imprisoned him. They said to us, “ Sirs, what is 
 it in that Bible of yours that gives such strength and 
 courage to those that embrace it I Now, we had that 
 nephew of ours right in our power. We told him that 
 he should never get away alive unless he renounced Chris- 
 tianity, and there was no probability that he would. He 
 expected to die from starvation there ; but, sirs, every day, 
 no matter who were there, he would kneel in his cell and 
 he would pray to that Yesu Kristu, the Divine Eedeemer 
 that he called God, and when he arose there was no doing 
 anything with him. You never saw such a stubborn fel- 
 low. What is it that makes this Bible give such nerve 
 and such courage to those that embrace it?” 
 
28 
 
 V 
 
 THE BIBLE TESTED; OB, 
 
 Does this Bible qnell opimsition f It is quick and power- 
 ful? I would I could take you to a scene in that same 
 kingdom of Hyderabad that I witnessed fourteen years 
 ago. There in a city, a walled town of 18,000 inhabitants, 
 the people had arisen in a mob to drive us out because we 
 tried to speak of another God than theirs. We had gone 
 to the market-place and I had endeavoured to preach to 
 them of Christ and his salvation, but they would not hear. 
 They ordered us to leave the city at once, but I had de- 
 clined to leave until I had delivered to them my message* 
 The throng was filling the streets. They told me if I tried 
 to utter another word I should be killed. There was no 
 rescue; they would have the city gates closed, and there 
 should never auy news go forth of what was done. I 
 must leave at once or I should not leave alive. I had 
 seen them tear up the paviug stones and fill their arms 
 with them to be ready, and one was saying to anotlier, 
 “ You throw the first stone and 1 will throw the next.” 
 By an artifice I need not stop now to detail, I succeeded 
 in getting permission to tell them a story before they 
 stoned me, and then they might stone me if they wished. 
 They were standing around me ready to throw the stones 
 when I succeeded in getting them to let me tell the story 
 first. I told them the story of all stories, of the love of the 
 Divine Father that had made us of one blood, who “ so 
 loved the world that he gave his only begotten Sou, that 
 whosoever believeth in him might not perish, but have 
 everlasting life.” I told them the story of that birth in 
 the manger at Bethlehem, of that wonderful childhood, of 
 that marvellous life, of those miraculous deeds, of the gra- 
 cious words that he spake. I told them the story of the 
 cross, and pictured in the graphic words that the IMaster 
 gave me that day, the story of our Saviour nailed upon 
 the cross, for them, for me, for all the world, when he cried 
 in agony, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ?” 
 When 1 told them that, I saw the men go and throw their 
 stones ill the gutter and come back, and down the cheeks 
 of the very men that had been clamouring the loudest 
 
THE BIBLE IX INDIA. 
 
 29 
 
 for my blood I saw the tears running and dropping ott 
 upon the pavement that they had torn np; and when 1 
 had linished the story and told them how he had been laid 
 in the grave and after three days lie had come forth tri- 
 umphant, and had ascended again to heaven, and that 
 there he ever lives to make intercession for them, for ns, 
 for all the world, and that through his merits every one of 
 them there assembled could obtain remission of sin and 
 eternal life, I told them then that I had linished my story 
 and they might stone me now ; but no, they didn’t want 
 to stone me now ; they didn’t know what a wonderful story 
 I had come there to tell them. They came forward and 
 bought eighty co])ies of the Scriiitnres and gospels and 
 tracts, and paid the money for them, for they w'anted to 
 know more of that wonderful ►Saviour of whom I had told 
 them. 
 
 What do our emmies say of the Bible f those keen- 
 witted Brahmius, who know their own Vedas, with all 
 their beauties, who are capable of judging of what they 
 read. What do those our enemies say of this book? I 
 will tell you what they say ; I will give you the testimony 
 of one of their Brahmins, not a Christian. 
 
 I had been delivering a series of lectures to the edu- 
 cated men in my region on their Vedas and the Christian 
 Scriptures, compared and contrasted. I had shown them 
 by quotations from their Vedas and Shastras that their 
 Scriptures pointed out one God, pure and holy and good; 
 the creator, and preserver, and controller of all things; 
 that their Scriptures pointed out man in a state of sin 
 and rebellion against that holy God. I had shown them 
 that their Vedas pointed out the fact that sinful man 
 could not be at peace with holy God until that sin was 
 in some way expurgated. I had shown them that their 
 Scriptures brought man up to the edge of the gulf that 
 yawned between sinful man and sinless God, and left him 
 there yearning on the brink, anxious to get over but with 
 no means of crossing ; that the Christian Scriptures point- 
 ing out God as a God of purity and holiness, and man 
 
30 
 
 THE BIBLE TESTED; OR, 
 
 in a state of sin, had brought man to the edge of the 
 same chasm, but that they, in and through Jesus Christ, 
 the God-man, had bridged that gulf; that Jesus Christ 
 in his human nature resting on man’s side, in his divine 
 nature on God’s side, bridged the gulf, and that we could 
 all pass over, dropping our sins into the chasm as we went, 
 and be at peace with holj^ God. There had been in that 
 concluding lecture a most profound silence. The room 
 was packed, and the windows, all open, reaching down 
 low, were filled with the heads of those standing outside 
 who were anxious to hear. There were no Christians 
 present except my singing baud; they were all heathen. 
 When I had finished, offering a short prayer to the God of 
 truth to bring us all to understand the truth, whatever it 
 might be, and rose taking my book to leave, a Brahmin 
 in the audience asked permission to say a few words. I 
 said to myself, “Now there will be a tough discussion, 
 for that man is the most learned man in the audience 
 and the best reasoner in all this region.” But I had 
 determined to stand my ground, for I had reserve am- 
 munition that I had not yet used. I expected him to 
 attack the ground I had taken, for I had taken strong 
 ground that night as to the insuttipiency of their V^das ; 
 but instead of that he gave one of the most beautiful 
 addresses that I ever listened to in any language. It 
 was so graphic, so beautiful, that I went home and wrote 
 it out in the English language, j)art of it, preserving his 
 phraseology and idiom as far as 1 could, and I wish to 
 read you a few sentences to-night to show you what he 
 thought of the Christian Scriptures. He said : 
 
 A BBAHMIN ON THE BIBLE. 
 
 “Behold that mango tree on yonder roadside! Its fruit is ap- 
 proaching to ripeness. Bears it that fruit for itself or for its own profit? 
 From the moment the lirst ripe fruits turn their yellow sides towards 
 the morning sun until the last mango is pelted ofi‘, it is a.ssailed with 
 showers of sticks and stones from boys and men, and ev'ery pjvsser by, 
 until it stands bereft of leaves, with branches knocked off, bleeding from 
 many a broken twig; and piles of stone underneath, and clubs and 
 sticks lodged in its boughs, are the only trophies of its joyous crop of 
 
THE BIBLE IN INDIA. 
 
 31 
 
 fruit. Is it discouraged? Does it cea.se to bear fruit? Does it say, ‘ If 
 I am barren no one will pelt me, and I shall live in peace? ’ Not at 
 all. The next season the budding leaves, the beauteous flowers, the 
 tender fruit, again appear. Again it is pelted, and l)roken and \vound- 
 ed, but goes on bearing, and cliildren’s children pelt its branches and 
 enjoy its fruit. 
 
 "That is a type of these missionaries. I have wateiied tliem well, 
 and have seen what they are. Wliat do they come to this country for? 
 What tempts them to leave their parents, friends, and country, and 
 come to this, to them unhealthy, climate? Is it for gain or for profit 
 that they come? Some of us country clerks in government ofiices re- 
 ceive more salary than they. Is it for the sake of an easy life? See 
 how they work, and then tell me. No; they .seek, like the mango 
 tree, to bear fruit for the l)cuefit of others, and that, too, though treaterl 
 witii contumely and abuse from those they are benefiting. 
 
 “ Now, what is it makes them do all this for us? It is their Bible. 
 I have looked into it a good deal at one time and another, in the 
 different languages I chance to know. It is just the .same in all lan- 
 guages. The Bible — there is nothing to compare witli it in all our 
 sacred books for goodness, and purity, and holiness, and love, and for 
 motives of action. 
 
 “ Where did the English-speaking people get all their intelligence, 
 and energy, and cleverness, and j)ower? It is their Bible that gives it 
 to them. And now they bring it to us and say, ‘This is what raised 
 us ; take it and raise yourselves ! ’ They do not force it upon us, as the 
 Mohammedans did with their Koran, but they bring it in love, and 
 translate it into our languages, and lay it before us, and say, ‘Look 
 at it; read it; examine it, and see if it is not good.’ Of one thing I am 
 convinced : do what we will, oppose it as we may, it is the Christian’s 
 Bible that will, sooner or later, work the regeneration of this land.’’ 
 
 “ Yerily, their rock is not as our Eock, even our enemies 
 themselves being judges ” 
 
 The Bible has always had its enemies; so has every- 
 thing that is good, in the moral or physical world. In 
 Eulton’s time the wiseacres of his day proved to a demon- 
 stration, as they thought, that his invention of a steamboat 
 was worthless ; that the plan was faulty ; the engine was 
 defective, and that it could not work. But when, on the 
 morning set for its trial, the banks of the Hudson were 
 lined with the anxious throng who had come to see it put 
 to the proof; when the steam was turned on, and the wheels 
 began to revolve, and the boat glided out, cutting its way 
 through the placid waters of the river, shout on shout from 
 river bank and window and roof rent the sky. What did 
 
32 THE BIBLE TESTED; OR, THE BIBLE IN INDIA. 
 
 they care for the demonstrations of the wise men I The 
 steamer worked, and that was enough. 
 
 So we will let the so-called wise men of this day prove 
 to their own satisfaction that the Bible is worthless; hut so 
 long as it ivories — redeeming, elevating mankind, causing 
 the moral desert to blossom as the rose — ive will stand hy it^ 
 so help us God ! It has had attacks before, and has survived 
 them. At the close of the last century there were those 
 who, after demonstrating, as they said, that it was anticpia- 
 ted, and defective, and etfete, j>rophesied that before the 
 middle of this century it would be found only on the 
 shelves of the antiquarian; hut yet it works. And while 
 your existence and your names, oh enemies of the Bible, 
 are fading from the remembrance of mankind — verifying 
 the prophecy contained in that Word, that “the memory 
 of the wicked shall rot” — the Bible that you despised, 
 translated since your day into 150 more languages, is run- 
 ning through the world, conquering and to conquer, till 
 all the earth shall be subject to its sway. 
 
 Brothers, sisters, friends, we have this Bible. It is our 
 priceless heritage. Let us read it more. Let us study it 
 more. Let us love it more. Let us live it more ; and let 
 us join hands with this Society in giving it to all the 
 world, to every creature.