MISSIONARY RESULTS—(CONTINUED)
1. THE LEAVEN OF CHRISTIANITY.
Our Lord compared his Kingdom to the mustard seed which grew into a tree.
This wonderful growth and development of his Kingdom we considered in the
last chapter. He compared it also to the leaven which was placed in the
meal and which leavened the whole lump. We shall now consider the
leavening or assimilating work of his Kingdom as at present witnessed in
India.
If a man were to ask me, “wherein do you find the most encouragement as a
Christian worker in India?” I would doubtless reply:—not in the Church and
community gathered by the missions, but outside of the Christian fold, in
the institutions, and among the non-Christians, of the land. It is not in
the fields already harvested (though much of joy and promise we certainly
find there), but in the fields whitening for the harvest, that we see the
largest hope for the ultimate conquest of that great people by Christ.
There are in India, at present, a thousand results, movements and
tendencies which, to the thoughtful, watchful, Christian worker, bespeak
the rapid coming of the Kingdom of Christ, even though their testimony is
not heard through mission statistical tables, and though their activity is
found mostly outside the visible pale of the Church.
I appreciate the fact that, when we begin to consider these results which
lie outside the life and organization of the Christian community, we need
much discernment and discrimination, lest we ascribe to Christianity alone
an influence and an efficiency which it only shares with Western thought
and civilization. But it is not only impossible to separate these forces,
in our endeavour to estimate the share of each in the results achieved;
western thought and civilization, both in their origin and development,
are themselves as much the product as they are the expression of
Christianity; so that we need not hesitate much in ascribing to our faith
all the results which the combined energy of these have produced in that
land.
Another discrimination is here necessary. In the last chapter we dwelt,
almost exclusively, upon Protestant missionary activity and results. These
we were able to measure chiefly through the concentrated activity and
published statistical reports of Protestant Missions. But, in considering
the more indirect and general results there achieved we must not forget
that they must be ascribed to all the Christian agencies at work in that
land. I believe that Protestant Christianity is much the largest Christian
power among all the forces that make for the redemption of India. And yet
it would be presumptuous and unjust not to recognize the strenuous
activity and pervasive influence of Roman Catholicism in the land. I am
convinced that that great historic Church, with all its errors and false
methods, is nevertheless a positive and a mighty power in the
dissemination of Christian thought and principles in India. In the results
which I am about to mention, this and all other Christian agencies have
had their share.
Some of these activities, indeed, _seem_ to come directly from none of the
organized agencies of Christianity in the land. But they are only
apparently so. They are among the thousand subtle influences which work in
a quiet way in the minds and life of the people and which suddenly, from
time to time, break upon our sight through their results. An illustration
of this kind occurred not long ago. It is said that one of the vernacular
versions of the Gospels accidentally fell into the hands of a Mohammedan
Moulvi, or teacher, in North India. It had been prepared and published by
the Bible Society. The Mussulman read the book with eagerness, chiefly
with a view to find new arguments against the divinity of our Lord and the
heavenly source of our faith. But, as he read, he was so impressed with
the wonderful narrative and the unique beauty of the character of our
Lord, that he surrendered himself to him as his Saviour and found in him
peace and rest. Sometime later he met a Hindu fakir, named Chet Ram, who
was earnestly in search of the truth. The Mohammedan convert joyfully told
him of his newly found Saviour and gave him his copy of the New Testament
that he might find for himself the same blessing. The Holy Spirit carried
the Gospel message of life into his heart also, and he accepted Christ and
at once began to preach him unto his friends and neighbours. This work he
performed faithfully; and he gathered around himself many who accepted his
following, short creed;—“I believe in Jesus Christ the Son of Mary and in
the Holy Ghost and in the Father to whom prayer should be made and in the
Bible through which salvation is to be received.” Chet Ram died some time
ago; but there are today found, scattered through the villages of North
India, thousands of his followers who subscribed to his brief creed and
who always carry upon their persons a copy of the Scriptures. So far as I
know, these people have never come into contact with Christian workers,
but have been led simply through a study of God’s Word, under the guidance
of God’s Spirit, unto Christ the Saviour of the world.
It is one of the most encouraging facts connected with Christian influence
in India that one so often and unexpectedly meets its manifestations in
individual life and institutions. Suddenly he comes across little streams
of influence whose source may be unknown, but which do a great deal
towards fertilizing thought and producing a harvest of religious results
throughout the land.
The general subject of the influence of the West upon the East has been
recently raised in the very interesting and thought-provoking book on
“Asia and Europe” by the English writer, Meredith Townsend. He stiffly
maintains that the West never has, and, probably, never will, seriously
and permanently influence the East in thought and life. While there is a
semblance, yea an element, of truth in his contention, so far as the past
is concerned, it fails to apply to the India of the present and must fall
far wide of the mark in the future. Many years have elapsed since the
author of “Asia and Europe” left India; and he is not conversant, at first
hand, with the mighty revolution which is taking place there at present.
He fails, for one thing, to appreciate the wonderful influence of modern
scientific discovery as a unifier of all peoples and as the handmaid of
western life and thought and of Christian conquest. I need refer only to
one of these modern agencies—the telegraph. The election of Mr. McKinley
as president of the United States was known to me in India before it was
known to nine-tenths of the population of this land.
The calamity which recently befell Galveston, Texas, was not only known to
Hindus, the very next day; the price of cotton went up in South India
villages as a consequence of that sad event. The generous offerings
recently contributed in America for the famine sufferers in India were
actually distributed to them in food the next day after they were offered!
Can these things, and a thousand like them, which enter into the every-day
transactions of East and West, have no permanent influence upon the
relations of these once remote but now neighbouring people? Isolation has
everywhere given way to intercourse and mutual dependence; and that means
community of life and thought which produces fundamental action and
reaction.
Under these new and marvellous conditions the former “mental seclusion of
India,” so unduly emphasized by Mr. Townsend, is rapidly yielding and must
utterly pass away. It will, however, not pass away simply because of the
influence of the West upon the East, but rather because of the mutual
action and reaction of East and West. The East will approach the West
because, to a large extent, the West will have learned to appreciate, and
to draw in sympathy towards, the East. Herein lies the secret of the
future oneness, or at least of the communion, of the two great
hemispheres.
India is, therefore, in this matter, facing today such conditions as never
before existed there; and these are to further considerably the work of
revolution which our religion is bringing to pass in that land, and which
such pessimists as Mr. Townsend are wont to ignore.
That keen philosopher and high authority upon India, Sir Alfred Lyall, is
right in his anticipation when he claims that India “will be carried
swiftly through phases which have occupied long stages in the lifetime of
other nations.”
Considering, then, the leavening influences and the general results of our
faith in that land we shall see them in many institutions and departments
of life.
(_a_) In laws which the government of India has enacted during the last
century.
There has been a steady conflict between the enlightened government of the
white man and the inhuman customs of the people of that land. The
Christian sentiment of the members of the government, and of other
Christians outside of that circle, has ever rebelled against and sought to
put down the grossest evils which obtain there.
And the fact which we need to emphasize here is that these evils have been
directed and protected by Hinduism itself and are an integral part of its
ceremonies and teachings. Whenever the government has sought, by
legislation, to do away with these inhuman rites and customs it has been
bitterly opposed by Hinduism and has been met by a general uprising of its
followers against what they have called religious interference and
persecution. Thus the suppression of Thuggism was a definite attack upon a
religious institution, for the Thuggs never committed a murder, save as a
part of their worship of the goddess Bhowanee to whose service they had
dedicated themselves and to which the blood of the innocent traveller (as
they thought) was the most welcome sacrifice its devotee could offer.
Hence the difficulty which faced the government in bringing these
religious murders to an end.
Suttee was also regarded as a high type of religious devotion. For the
widow to immolate herself upon the funeral pyre of her dead husband was
not only the supreme test of wifely devotion, it was also preëminently the
highest religious act possible to her; and it brought to her a future
bliss which was painted in glowing and attractive colours by the sacred
books of her faith. It was not strange, therefore, that the State
hesitated, for a long time, to abolish by law this hideous custom, whereby
in the year 1817, for instance, two widows were burned daily in the Bengal
Presidency alone.
It was in the face of extensive protest and threats by orthodox Hindus
that the government abolished it. “Previous to 1857, 150 human sacrifices
are said to have been annually offered in Gumsur, a city in East Central
India; and the abolition of that horrible custom raised such a storm of
opposition among the Hindus that an eight years’ war was the result. More
than 2,000 victims were rescued from sacrifice and handed over to the care
of the missionaries.” In like manner infanticide was encouraged for
centuries in the land as an act of religious devotion which was possessed
of great efficacy. In the name of religion and with the promise of its
highest blessings mothers were led to feed the crocodiles of the sacred
Ganges by throwing to them their own infants.
It seems hardly possible that human beings could regard the prohibition of
that inhuman and unnatural act as a piece of injustice and an interference
with the rights of conscience. And yet it was so regarded!
Not fewer than twenty laws have thus been enacted in that land, during the
last century, with a view to putting an end to religious customs which
robbed thousands of people, annually, of life itself and deprived many
thousands more of the most elementary and inalienable rights of human
beings. So it has become penal to do any one of the following things, all
of which were regarded as expressions of the highest religious devotion
and were committed with the sanction of the ancestral faith and under the
inspiration of its benediction: to burn widows; to expose parents to death
on the banks of the Ganges; to offer up human sacrifice; to murder
children, either by throwing them into the Ganges, or by the Rajpoot
secret method of infanticide; to encourage men to throw away their lives
under temple cars and in other ways of religious devotion; to encourage
various forms of voluntary self-torture and self-mutilation; to outrage
girls under a certain age.
How much hath the Spirit of Christ wrought in that land during the century
by saving the lives of millions of poor innocent creatures from the
ravages of a savage faith and an inhuman religious devotion!
Thus, in India today the laws protect the people, old and young, from the
old murderous customs of its religion, and gives a sanctity to life and a
protection to the innocent and a check to the mad, suicidal tendency of
the religious fanatic, such as India never before knew. And all this has
been done in the teeth of their religion and notwithstanding the
persistent cries and protests of the religious leaders of the people.
I have already mentioned the fact that the obscene and the impure have in
many ways been fostered by that faith, and that the government has thus
far been unable to find courage to apply to religious temples, symbols and
rites that legislation which it has enacted against the obscene in
literature and in the ordinary life of the people. And yet, we are
encouraged to find there this anomaly today,—that men, for translating and
publishing obscene portions of the Hindu scriptures, have been punished in
accordance with this law. The day will, doubtless, soon come, it must
come, when this legislation against obscenity will be enforced without
exception in favour of temple cars and sacred objects and rites.
In reference to caste observance the State has been more courageous and
has absolutely ignored class distinction among its subjects. No one who
has not lived in the East can realize how radical and important this
policy is in that land of class distinctions based upon religious
injunction and revelation. It seemed absurd and unrighteous to that people
that the august and sacred Brahman and the unclean and outcaste Pariah
should be regarded as equal before the law, and that a pauper should
enjoy, with a prince, the same protection and blessings from the State.
Regardless of immemorial custom and religious injunction, the government
has become the great leveller—it has ignored entirely, in all the rights
and privileges which it has to confer, every caste distinction and class
privilege and disability which Hinduism had created and sacredly
maintained for centuries. And it adheres stiffly to its Christian
principle of the equal rights of all its subjects.
(_b_) Moreover, Hinduism itself is being gradually transformed under the
search-light of a present Christianity.
Not only has it been compelled, from without, to give up some of its
inhuman practices, it has also voluntarily, from very shame, relinquished
some of its grossest evils.
There is a very interesting conflict now going on in Hinduism—between the
ultra-conservatives and the progressives. This latter class is composed
almost entirely of men who have been educated in mission and government
schools, and who have been influenced by Christian light and life.
I do not expect much from a Christianized Hinduism any more than I do from
a Hinduized Christianity. And yet we cannot be unmindful of, nor
ungrateful for, that growing sense of shame which leads that faith to
conceal, if not to abandon entirely, some of its worst crimes against man
and to adorn itself in such a way that it may not too violently shock the
sensibilities of a people who are living under the growing light of a
Christian civilization.
This is what the ancestral faith of India is now intent upon doing, at
least so far as the changing situation compels. The influence of educated
Hindus upon the pundits and other religious guides of the land is
increasing annually, and is steadily in favour of religious reform and of
a broad and enlightened interpretation of Shastraic deliverances upon
religious customs. For example, a few years ago, sea voyages were strictly
prohibited to all Hindus. No exceptions were allowed and excommunication
was the inevitable penalty for the violation of this religious injunction.
Today hundreds of Hindus, impelled by an ambition for the best education
and for a broad culture, annually travel to England and to other foreign
lands. Though some of those men are punished for their temerity in defying
this sacred injunction of their faith, it is remarkable how many pundits
arise to defend such travel and to reduce the opprobrium which overtakes a
sea-travelled man. Indeed, every year adds to the ease with which such a
man can avoid punishment for going abroad.
Until recently, Hinduism had no way of reinstating a man who had deserted
his ancestral faith and had thereby broken caste. Today this subject is up
for discussion, and many of the religious leaders are pointing to passages
from their Scriptures which justify such a reinstatement and are showing
methods by which it can be effected. In consequence of this not a few
back-sliding Christians have recently found an open door to reenter their
ancestral faith. This is an important move; but I doubt whether it will
cause Christians to lose any converts save those who are not sincere and
who would therefore be better outside than within the Christian Church.
A generation ago few Hindus in the villages of the land would fail to
defend polytheism and idolatry as an essential part of their faith. At
present the Christian preacher, as he travels among these same people,
finds universal assent to his declaration concerning the unity of God. I
have hardly met one villager in the land who maintains today that there
are really “gods many.” Polytheism is not defended but explained away, and
idolatry, it is claimed, is only an accommodation—a kind of religious
kindergarten—for the sake of the very ignorant, and “for women and
children.” But of course, pantheism is the Hindu’s conception of the
divine unity.
Whenever an educated Hindu defends his faith, in an argument with a
Christian, he never quotes as scriptural authority the more recent
writings of their faith—the Tantras and Puranas, which are the storehouse
of legend and myth, of myriad rites and customs and are the refuge and joy
of the orthodox and conservative pandits;—he discards these and falls back
upon the most ancient writings, which are the exponents of nature worship
and of vedantic philosophy. Or he will extol the Bhagavat Gita, which is
an eclectic attempt to unify and approve the conflicting philosophies of
Brahmanism.
In these, and in many other ways, Hinduism finds today new presentation
and defence. It is not the thing it used to be. And yet in matters of
fundamental importance it is and will remain unchanged. In some respects
these changes make that ancient faith less vulnerable to attack. In the
words of Doctor Robson,—“The influence of Christianity upon Hinduism has
been rather to strengthen its rival by forcing it to abandon certain
positions which weakened it, and bringing it more into accordance with
natural religion. But Hinduism remains the same. The contest is coming to
be between the ultimate principles of the two religions, and these are
irreconcilable.”(14) Yes, it will be a good day for Christianity when the
great contest is thus narrowed down, and when the deepest teachings of the
two faiths will be placed in clear and simple juxtaposition.
One serious source of danger in this controversy lies in the Neo-Hinduism
which interprets Hinduism in the light of Christian truth and modern
thought. Hindus formerly maintained that the teachings of Christianity
were false. Now they tell us that most of its truths were taught by their
own faith even before the Christian era! Through the allegories of their
Shastras, and under the guidance of the fertile imagination of that
Englishwoman, Mrs. Besant, they find equally the best Christian truth and
most recent results of modern scientific discovery taught by their ancient
scriptures! Mrs. Besant has even discovered that the ten incarnations of
Vishnu are based on strict evolution principles and follow that order.
She claims, indeed, that many of the most recent discoveries in the
physical universe were anticipated and promulgated three millenniums ago
by Hindu rishis. This of course is a method of insanity which will soon
give way to a newer craze. For the present it helps to evade or confuse
the issue in certain minds; but as it is in itself a substitution of
nonsense for argument and reason it will not long deceive any one, not
even the poor Hindu.
And just as, under the present Christian régime, Hinduism is rapidly being
transformed, no less truly does the Mohammedan faith undergo change. There
is a new Islam arising in India. That faith cannot be preserved in its
rigid integrity under the ægis of a Christian government; therefore in
India the faith of the great Arabian prophet has undergone marked
transformation during the last century and a half. Its religious leaders
there are rationalists who scrutinize and criticise the Koran with the
boldness of the higher critics of the Bible. They both urge that the Koran
has no permanent authority on moral questions, and also insist upon
progress in all religious matters.(15)
This young Mohammedan party of progress have found a vigorous leader in
Judge Amir Ali Sahib, a brilliant writer, who hesitates not to explain
away or antagonize all those teachings of his faith which lie athwart the
path of progress and enlightenment.
He avows, in his book on “The Spirit of Islam,” that his purpose is to
assist “the Muslims of India to achieve intellectual and moral
regeneration under the auspices of the Great European Power that now holds
their destiny in its hands.” “The reformers,” he further writes, “are
congratulated that the movement set on foot is conducted under a neutral
government.” Thus a Mussulman writer declares that the highest reforms can
best be conducted under a Christian government!
All this is illustrative of that leavening influence of our faith as it
comes into contact with and permeates the spirit and teaching of these and
other religions of that land.
(_c_) Another marked result of Christianity in that country is seen in the
attitude of many thousands of Hindus who live contiguous to the Christian
communities found there.
In the first place we see it among the common people. I have already
referred to mass movements which have largely helped to strengthen the
Christian Church in the past. Those movements have only just begun; they
will continue and increase in the land. Day by day Christianity is
commending itself to the people in a thousand ways. In times of famine,
when the old religious leaders of the people—the Brahmans—render no help
and manifest no sympathy, yea more, are as rapacious as ever, the loving
sympathy of Christians there and in far off lands, and their outgoing
charity and their substantial help to the famine stricken and the
suffering—all this does not fall in vain upon the susceptible mind of the
people.
This work of Christianity in uniting the world through brotherhood and
sympathy seems wonderful to a people who are crushed and robbed by the
wretched divisiveness of their own terrible caste system. They recognize
also the truth and the life which Christianity presents in contrast with
the debasing idolatry and the senseless, all-pervasive ceremonialism which
haunt them.
It is not surprising therefore that we see, not only certain mass
movements towards our faith but also, on the outskirts of the Christian
community in every district, a growing number of doubting, halting
ones—those who have done with their ancestral faith and who are attracted
by the religion of Christ, but who are so much afraid of the terrible
demon, caste, that they dare not openly accept Christ and unite with God’s
people through baptism. They linger on the outside, hoping for some great
tide of influence to come, soon, to carry them, without persecution, into
the kingdom. Their attitude of mind is encouraging, and the missionary
hopes for the day which will furnish the strength and opportunity for this
great host of weak and doubting ones to make its decision for Christ and
to enter, in ever-increasing numbers, into His Kingdom.
I have come into daily, close touch with many men and women of this class.
They, at the same time, encourage and exasperate one. They give evidence
of the strong influence of our faith upon them—they have ceased to visit
Hindu temples, they decline to worship the family and tribal gods, they
lose no opportunity to denounce the idolatry and superstitions which have
debased them, and they always speak to their friends a warm word for
Christianity and often attend its meetings in their village. But there
they continue to stand. They are the slaves of caste fear and of social
inertia. While, however, they stand and wait they often say the word and
give the encouragement which enable others to accept Christ openly and to
enter the Christian fold.
They are also always glad to send their children to our schools and are
willing to have them instructed in the truth and guided into the life of
our faith. They often contribute towards the support of Christian pastor
or teacher, and in various other ways evince their sympathy and reveal
their intellectual assent.
For instance:—In Tinnevelly there is a hall built by such a Hindu to
commemorate the late Queen Victoria, in which lectures and entertainments
are held. Christian ministers are frequently asked to pray at these
gatherings; and former years have witnessed requests by the donor for
prayer, from well-known ministers and bishops. Such appreciation of
Christian worship is very pleasing, particularly as the proprietor is a
member of a committee that has the oversight of nearly 300 Sivite temples
in the district.
They also show their appreciation of the medical work of Christian
missions. In the city of Madura stands one of the finest hospitals in the
country. It is the property of the American Board, but was erected, at an
expense of $14,000 by members of the orthodox Hindu community as a
monument of their appreciation of the mission physician and of their
confidence in the mission and its work.
(_d_) Another marked feature of the religious life of India, at present,
is the existence there of several new cults or religions. They not only
add picturesqueness to the religious situation, they also reveal the
unrest of the people and their desire for something better than the
orthodox faith of their fathers furnishes them.
[Illustration: Sacred Tank In Madura Temple.]
[Illustration: Hospital For Men, American Madura Mission.]
Having become dissatisfied and disgusted with their ancestral religion,
they are striving in every possible way, short of being Christians, to
seek for something better and higher. This is what we should expect. In
the many schools and colleges of the land the subtle metaphysics of the
East is supplanted by the modern philosophy of the West; their own
bewildering ancient rules of logic are replaced by the more rational
processes of the West. So that every university matriculate and graduate
of India is today crammed with ideas, and trained in methods of thinking,
which make a belief in practical Hinduism and in much of its philosophy an
impossibility, if not an absurdity.
Thus we see in that land today a number of movements and organizations
which are a protest against orthodox Hinduism and are carrying the people,
in thought and sympathy, from the past to the present, from the old to the
new. Most of these movements are merely half-way houses between Hinduism
and Christianity. They are with faces more or less turned towards the
light and possess the progressive spirit which, in some cases, cannot fail
of landing their members, at no distant date in the Christian fold. For
instance, we have in western India the _Prartanei Somaj_ (prayer society);
in north India the _Arya Somaj_ (Aryan society), and in Bengal the _Brahmo
Somaj_ (society of God).
These are healthy movements, away from a general, old-fashioned view of
religious things. Take, for example, the Brahmo Somaj. Though not as large
in membership as the Arya Somaj it represents more culture and power.
Nearly all the members are men of education and of western training, and
represent much more influence than their number (4,000) would suggest.
Their new faith is an eclecticism. It has adopted a little of Hinduism and
of Buddhism and of Mohammedanism and a great deal of Christianity. The
movement, especially that progressive branch which was under the
leadership of Protab Chunder Mozumdar, is largely Christian in drift and
spirit. Mozumdar accepts Christ, though not in the fullness of belief in
His divinity or in His atoning work; nevertheless with an amount of
appreciation, affection, devotion and loyalty not met even among many
Western Christians today. His book on “The Oriental Christ” is full of
appreciation and reveals a wonderful knowledge of the eastern Christ from
an Eastern standpoint. I shall not be surprised to see the members of this
society landing, at an early date, through a full confession of Christ, in
membership of the Christian Church.
In the meanwhile it is disappointing to find this organization divided,
already, into so many mutually antagonistic sects. It is also a reason for
regret that Mozumdar, who is a man of great culture, intelligence and deep
spiritually, has recently relinquished the leadership of the movement.
Having retired to the Himalayas, he communicates his reasons in these
truly oriental, pathetic and pessimistic words:
“Age and sickness get the better of me in these surroundings, I cannot
work as I would—contemplation is distracted, concentration disturbed,
though I struggle ever so much. These solitudes are hospitable; these
breadths, heights and depths are always suggestive. I acquire more spirit
with less struggle, hence I retire.
“My thirst for the higher life is growing so unquenchable that I need the
time and the grace to reëxamine and purify and reform every part of my
existence. The Spirit of God promises me that grace if I am alone. So let
me alone.
“The rich are so vain and selfish, the poor are so insolent and mean, that
having respect for both I prefer to go away from them.
“The learned think so highly of themselves, the ignorant are so full of
hatred and uncharitableness, that having good will for both I prefer to
hide myself from all.
“The religious are so exclusive, the sceptical so self-sufficient that it
is better to be away from both.
“Where are the dead? Have not they too retired? I wish my acquaintance
with the dead should grow, that my communion with them should be
spontaneous, perpetual, unceasing. I will invoke them and wait for them in
my hermitage.
“What is life? Is it not a fleeting shadow, the graveyard of dead hopes,
the battlefield of ghastly competitions, the playground of delusions,
separations, cruel changes and disappointments? I have had enough of
these. And now with the kindliest love for all, I must prepare and
sanctify myself for the great Beyond, where there is solution for so many
problems, and consolation for so many troubles....”
This seems an unworthy ending to a very worthy life. And yet a movement
which has created two such men as Chunder Sen and Protab Mozumdar is a
compliment to Christianity and has a mission before it. But it must
undergo many changes ere it can exercise a commanding influence in the
land.
A much more popular movement is the Arya Somaj. The recent census reports
40,000 members of this organization. If Brahmo Somaj represents the
working of that Hindu mind which has been imbued with European culture and
Christian thought towards a solution of its religious doubts and problems;
the Arya Somaj represents a strong Theistic movement springing forth out
of Hinduism itself. This latter movement is possessed of unwonted vigour
and has a future before it. The founder of this Somaj was Dyanand
Sarasvati, a Brahman who was born about the year 1825. He was a man of
much thought and of deep religious interest. He was entirely ignorant of
the English language. He broke with orthodox Hinduism after reading the
Christian Scriptures. And yet he also attacked the character of Jesus. He
accepted the Hindu Vedas as Scriptures, but interpreted them so freely
that he was able to find in them all that he desired of religious reform.
He vigorously opposed caste.
The following are some of the principles of the Arya Somaj:
1. God is the primary source of all true knowledge.
2. God is perfect in all His attributes and should be worshipped.
3. The Vedas are the books of true knowledge.
4. The caste system is a human invention and is evil.
5. Early marriage is prohibited.
The movement has assumed the aspect of a sect of Hinduism. But some of its
fundamental contentions are so directly antagonistic to most cherished
institutions of Hinduism that it is a mighty disintegrator of that
religion in the land.
It must be confessed that the Arya Somaj is, in its present spirit,
anti-Christian. It champions the cause of home religion in the East as
against the aggression of the great rival, Christianity. But the teachers
of our faith in India find encouragement equally in the hostility of this
movement and in its coöperation in a common attack upon modern Hinduism.
Any movement, that effectively calls the attention of the people to the
weakness and defects of its ancestral religion, cannot fail, in that very
process, to invite their attention to the claims of its rival,
Christianity.
The chief function of all these movements is to reveal the general
religious interest of the people. Indeed, they forward greatly the spirit
of discontent towards the ancestral faith. And while they do this, they
themselves furnish a no more satisfying or soul-inspiring substitute. And
in this way they emphasize the need of a new faith and draw the thought of
many to the new supplanting religion of the Christ. Chunder Sen, even
twenty years ago, declared that, “None but Jesus, none but Jesus, none but
Jesus is worthy to wear this diadem, India, and He shall have it.” Yes,
even through such movements as the Brahmo Somaj, Christ is winning India
for himself.
The educated classes of India are largely permeated and influenced by
Western thought. They may not be inclined to join any of the reform
movements which I have mentioned; but they are now thinking on absolutely
different lines from those of their ancestors fifty years ago. The
dissemination of Western literature, and especially the conduct of so many
Christian schools have done more, perhaps, than any other thing to create
an intellectual ferment and to produce a revolution of thought in all
parts of the land.
One cannot unduly emphasize the importance of Christian schools in India.
The government schools and the Hindu institutions of learning are
acknowledged to be the hot-beds of rationalism and of unbelief. They not
only furnish no religious instruction to the youth, they too often give
the impression that all religion is a mere superstition and is unworthy of
being taught.
To such an extent is this trend and influence observable that the
government experiences much concern, coupled with an expressed, though
vague, desire, that this evil be arrested by the introduction, into all
public schools, of some method of imparting at least the fundamental
principles of religion. But to discover the method of accomplishing this,
without violating the principle of religious neutrality, seems beyond its
power.
In the meanwhile mission schools have a grand sphere opened to them on
this line. They are not only a common agency, with governmental and all
other higher institutions, in the work of undermining and destroying vain
credulity and the whole brood of superstitions which are legion in India;
they are also a positive and constructive force in the impartation of
those principles of morality and teachings of religion which will ennoble
life here and hereafter. And in this connection it should not be forgotten
that all mission schools—higher and lower—enjoy unlimited opportunity to
teach, daily, to all their students God’s Word and to apply its principles
and its saving message to the minds of the half million students who are
being trained by them.
I desire to emphasize again the importance of all these schools as the
most potent agency, apart from the native Church itself, in the
transformation of the thought and life of India. It is a noteworthy fact
that the only statue erected to a missionary in India was that recently
unveiled by the Governor of Madras in the city of Madras to Dr. Wm.
Miller. This noble missionary educator has wrought mightily, through his
great institution in Madras, for the upbuilding of Christian truth in the
minds of Christian and non-Christian youth alike. And this statue is a
unique tribute of gratitude from his “old boys”—most of them still Hindus,
indeed—to the man who has been instrumental in opening before them the
broad vistas of Western thought and of Christian truth and life. But more
enduring than marble will abide the blessed results which he and his
colabourers have wrought in the thought and life of the more than 2,000
graduates who have been educated by them. Of these there are 1,800 who
represent the Hindus of thought and culture in South India at present.
Such is the influence of one Christian school.
If the work of the thousands of village Christian schools is more humble
in its aim it is much more pervasive in its reach, and it marvellously
directs thought and inspires life in remote villages.
Twelve years ago I opened one little primary school in a small unlettered
heathen village. Ten bright Hindu boys sought instruction at the hands of
the devout old Christian teacher placed there. Today these boys have grown
into manhood and, with one or two exceptions, have entered into the
Christian life and have been formed into a Christian congregation. They
are not only intelligent, but firm and beautiful in their new-found
Christian hope. Moreover, the whole village is permeated with Christian
truth and it resounds with the appeal of our faith. In this way have come
into existence many of the best and strongest congregations of the
Christian Church in India.
But, to return to the educated class in India. We have considered already
its attitude of mind towards the supplanting religion of Jesus.
[Illustration: Madras Christian College.]
[Illustration: Bombay Railway Station.]
Their opposition to Christianity, as it is now presented to them, I can
appreciate. They are beginning, for the first time, to think seriously and
philosophically about religion. They are, more than ever before, impatient
with their past, and annoyed with the inadequacy of their present faith.
It is not strange if this feeling is shown in their attitude towards the
only supplanting faith. In this matter they are on the way to light and
truth. The under-current is strongly right and in the direction of an
enlightened and an enlightening religion. They are more earnestly in quest
of truth than ever before. Moreover it is not substantive Christianity,
but adjectival Christianity—the too Western type of our faith—which
arouses their antagonism. And I must again express my belief that, before
Christianity is to gain universal acceptance by the people of India, it
must be dissociated from many Western ideas and practices which seem to us
essential even to its very life. When we learn to forget our antecedents
and prejudices and to study well the Hindu mind and its tendency, then
perhaps shall we be prepared to present a Christianity which will commend
itself universally to that land. The Rev. G. T. E. Slater in his new book,
wisely emphasized this same need.
“The West,” he says, “has to learn from the East, and the East from the
West. The questions raised by the Vedanta will have to pass into
Christianity if the best minds of India are to embrace it; and the Church
of the ‘farther East’ will doubtless contribute something to the thought
of Christendom, of the science of the soul, and of the omnipenetrativeness
and immanence of Deity.”(16)
But the most encouraging aspect of this question is the present attitude
of the mind of educated India towards Christ himself.
Listen to the words of an orthodox Hindu in a recent lecture delivered to
his fellow Hindus:—“How can we,” he says, “be blind to the greatness, the
unrivalled splendour of Jesus Christ. Behind the British Empire and all
European Powers lies the single great personality—the greatest of all
known to us—of Jesus Christ. He lives in Europe and America, in Asia and
Africa as King and Guide and Teacher. He lives in our midst. He seeks to
revivify religion in India. We owe everything, even this deep yearning
towards our own ancient Hinduism, to Christianity.”
All former antipathy to, and depreciation of Jesus, our Lord, have given
way to appreciation and admiration. They vie with each other in a study of
His life and regard Him as the only perfect Exemplar of man. That great
land which has never found in its old faith an ideal of life is now
finding it in our blessed Lord. This movement towards Him is remarkable.
They are enthroning Him in their imagination and are drawing Him to their
hearts.
A Braham friend of mine—a devout Hindu, a university graduate, a barrister
and a leader of the Hindu community, requested me to purchase for him a
pocket copy of Thomas a Kempis’ “Imitation of Christ.” He possessed a
large copy, but desired a small one which he could carry with him and
could use for devotional purposes on his journeys. Some of his friends
sought other copies through him. Thus they bought all the copies that I
could find for sale in South India. He also asked me to buy for him a copy
of Dr. Sheldon’s book, “In His Steps.”
I bought four dozen copies and sold all to Brahmans and to native
Christians. One of our pastors bought a copy. He soon handed it to a
Brahman friend—a government official and a university graduate—requesting
him to read it. This he did, and, returning with the book a few days
later, he earnestly said—“Sir, why don’t you bring us more such books as
this. We also want to know more of Christ and to follow ‘In His Steps.’ ”
Indeed, I find a wonderful eagerness among Hindus of culture to know all
that can be known about the life and teaching of our Lord, even though
they are not prepared to accept his atonement as their salvation. The same
fact is true among the common people. There are not a few who believe that
the tenth—that is, the coming—incarnation of Vishnu (Kalki avatar) refers
to Christ. A Hindu Saivite devotee told me once that they proposed soon to
place in their monastery an image of Christ (as they had one of Vishnu)
and thus render to Him worship in common with the others. I am confident
that Hindus, all but unanimously, would, today, vote to give him a place
in their pantheon and a share in their worship, if Christians would accede
to this. “Did we not,” they say, “thus appropriate Buddha, the arch-enemy
of Brahmanism, twenty-five centuries ago, and make him the ninth
incarnation of Vishnu? And why should we not regard Christ, also, as the
tenth ‘descent’ of our beloved Vishnu.”
I deem this trend towards Christ, and it is marked especially among the
educated in all parts of India, as the greatest encouragement to the
Christian worker in that land today.
I care not so much whether they accept our faith in its Western form and
spirit, so long as I see them growing in their appreciation of, and
devotion to the Christ. Through Him I am sure they will pass on to some
outer expression or other of their faith in Him—an expression which will
doubtless correspond with their own oriental turn of thought and life.
CONCLUSION.
Thus, whether we look at the growing Christian community and its many
cheering features of life and of activity; or whether we study the
non-Christian community and all the social and national institutions of
that land, we find large encouragement and a rich assurance of the speedy
coming of the Kingdom of our Lord.
Nearly a century ago—the very time in which America, through the America
Board, sent its first missionaries to that great land—the Directors of the
East India Company placed on record their sentiments in the following
words:
“The sending of Christian missionaries to our Eastern possessions is the
maddest, most expensive, most unwarranted project that was ever proposed
by a lunatic enthusiast.” This was, at that time, the conviction and the
confession of the English rulers of India. It was the voice of unbelief
and the declaration of defiant opposition. How different the attitude and
the words of Sir Rivers Thompson; the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal, near
the close of that same century. “In my judgment,” he says, “Christian
missionaries have done more real and lasting good to the people of India
than all other agencies combined.” Certainly, a no more competent witness
than he, and a no more conclusive evidence than his, could be desired.
In my compound in South India, for a quarter of a century, a date palm
tree grew and flourished. Years later a seed was carried by a bird and
dropped at the foot of this palm tree. It was the seed of the sacred _boh_
tree. It also sprouted and its slender, subtle shoot wound round the
sturdy palm. Every year it grew higher until it finally towered above the
date palm; and the higher it grew the more its winding stem thickened; and
as it thickened it began to tighten its grip upon the other tree. That
grip, so weak and innocent at first, soon became to the palm tree a grip
of death. For every day so added to the encircling power of the _boh_ tree
that, about three years ago, it completely enshrouded and killed the palm.
Today that _boh_ tree stands alone, indicating, by its spiral form, where
the unfortunate palm found its death; and it stretches forth its beautiful
branches in rich verdure and in welcome shade to all who seek refuge from
the heat of the tropical sun.
This is only a parable of the struggle which is witnessed in India today.
For many centuries the tree of Brahmanism has flourished. It covers that
whole land. But at its very root has been sown the seed of God’s Word and
there is growing out of it, in its beauty and strength, the sacred tree of
our Faith. Already it has the old tree in its almighty grip. The work of
death is progressing and the final issue is sure.
But it will not transpire in a day. The victory will come, is now coming.
But the resources of Hinduism are legion, and its strange fascination, to
some extent, continues. India, which is increasingly becoming Christ’s in
thought and ideals, will become his in worship and ritual, when his name
shall be heard in every home throughout the land. But we need patience;
and the grand result to be achieved is worthy of the noblest endurance and
of the most patient waiting.
Christian workers in that great land are faithfully labouring and
hopefully waiting until the fruitful branches of the sacred tree of
Christianity shall have spread over the whole land, so that its shade may
be the refuge of all souls in distress and its fruit shall abound for the
healing of all the nations of India.
The resources and the agencies of our Faith, which are now utilized for
the furtherance of the truth in that land, are already wonderfully varied
and potent; but they are also increasing annually in prevailing power as
in bewildering variety. Every Christian drawn from Hinduism and added to
the fold of Christ becomes, in himself, a force to draw and to win others
to Christ. This power has already become the main agency in the growth of
the church, and its efficiency is to grow in geometric ratio as the years
increase.
The great need of India today is the power of the Holy Spirit of God. His
people must bring themselves much more into subjection to his Spirit, that
they may, the more fully, be the vehicles of His grace to others and the
channel of His power in the land. The dangers of God’s Church are, and
will preëminently be, dangers from within rather than from without. It is
Hinduism, godlessness and sin within which must be fought with an eternal
vigilance and an uncompromising hostility. And for this a larger baptism
will mean a mighty fire of God kindled in the whole Church such as will
burn all its dross and consume all opposition. And then shall we speedily
witness the great desire of our heart—a happy, prosperous India, because
it will be Emmanuel’s land—a part of the great Fold of Christ.
This consummation is as sure as God’s own promises, for, in all his work,
the missionary is not only encouraged by results achieved and by
assurances given, but also by the double promise of God. First he has the
promise of the Father to the Son:
“Ask of me and I will give to thee the heathen for thine inheritance and
the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.” The Son _has_ asked
and is seeking the possession of the earth; and in the confidence of his
assurance he exclaims, “All authority is given unto me in heaven and in
earth.” And, to his waiting disciples, he adds, “Go ye therefore and make
disciples of all nations.” And with this all-embracing command he coupled
the all-satisfying promise, “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end
of the world.” Amen.
INDEX.
Administration, Mission, 264-286
Advaitha, 82
Agency employed by Hinduism and Christianity, 89
Agents, Mission, 304
Aims of the Two Faiths, 87
American Effort in India, 179, 329
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, 180
American Push, 187
Amir Ali Sahib, 345
Anglo-Saxon Effort in India, 172
Appliances, Missionary, 300
Army, The, 44
Aryans, 15, 289, 316
Arya Somaj, 313, 315, 349, 351
Asceticism of Hindus, 120
“Asia and Europe,” 335
Atchison, Sir Charles, 191
Australian Effort, 177
Avatar, 79
Banerjee, Kali Churn, 295, 316
Banerjee, Dr. K. M., 316
Banerjee, Surendra Nath, 51
Baptism—shall it be administered immediately upon confession? 290
Baptism—shall it be administered secretly? 291
Baptism—shall ladies administer? 292
Baptists, American, 292, 309
Barth, 69, 82, 94
Basil Mission, 285
Benevolence of Native Christians, 225
Besant, Mrs. Annie, 344
Bhagavada Gita, 96, 124
Bhakti, Doctrine of, 76
Bible—Influence of, 90
Bible, Translated, 178, 301
Bowen, Rev. George, 202
Brâhm, 84
Brahmo Somaj, 349
Buddha, The, 59
Buddhism, 54
Burma, 181
Canadian Effort, 188
Carey, William, 173
Caste, 26-107, 124
Caste and Government, 340
Caste in the Church, 131, 171, 270, 271
Ceremonialism, 121, 122
Chaitanya, 65
Character of Native Christians, 320
Child Marriages, 25, 154
Christian Community, The, 307
Christian Science, 293
Christian Schools, 354
Christianity and Hinduism Contrasted, 80
Chunder Sen, 150
Church Missionary Society, 174
Clarke, Dr. W. N., 267
Climates of India, 14
Comparison of present and past Methods of Work, 188
Comparative Religion, 209
Contrast of the two Faiths, 88
Contrast of the two Races, 46
Converts—from what Social Strata? 315
Coöperation among Missions, 238
Coronation Address of Indian Christians, 86
Credentials of Hinduism and Christianity, 183
Danish, 173
Demonolatry, 63
Denmark, 168
Direction of Missions, 234
Discipling the Nations, 266
Dress and Food of the Missionary, 199
Du Bois, The Abbe, 200, 201
Dravidians, 15
Drink Evil, The, 42
Duff, Alexander, 175
Dutch, 178
Dutt, Toru, 322
East and West, 297
East India Company, 176, 180, 360
Eastern Thought, 141
Economic Conditions, 18
Economic Problems, 282
Educated Classes and Christ, 357
Educated Classes and Western Thought, 353, 356
Education, 27, 193, 248, 277, 280
Education of Christians, its Extent, 281
Emancipation of Woman, 159
English Missions, 175
Eschatology, 75
Ethnic Faith, 109
European Effort in India, 178
Evangelistic Department, 242
Evolution, 264
Exclusive Spirit of Christianity, 108
Faith Missions, 231
“Failure of Missions,” 298
Fairbairn, Dr., 121
Family Life, 24
Famine, 21
Fatalism, 122
Frederick IV, King, 168
Gautama, 59
God, Doctrine of, 81
Goreh, Miss, 322
Government, The Educational Department of, 278
Government of India, 37
Government Service, 34
Grain of India, 15
Hall, Stanley President, 281
Haskell-Barrows Lectureship, 186
Harris, Lord, 187
Harrison, Ex-President Benjamin, 323
Heavens and Hells of Hinduism, 88
Hindu Character, 125, 128
Hindu Joint Family System, 24, 133
Hinduism, 62
Hinduism Conservative, 107
Hinduism an Ethnic Faith, 109
Hinduism—is it Tolerant? 310
Hinduism Transformed, 341
History of Christianity in India, 163
Hopkins, 69
Humility necessary to the Missionary, 213
Hymnology of India, 302
Ideals of the Two Faiths, 101
Ideals of the Hindu, 118
Incarnation, 72, 94
Independent Work of Indian Christians, 326
Individualism in Missions, 236
Industrial Mission, 179
Industrial Problems, 282
Infanticide, 158
Influence of Woman in India, 148
Inter-caste Marriages, 274
Irrigation Schemes, 22
Islam, The New, 345
Jaffna Mission, 182
Jones, Sir William, 82
Jordanus, 166
Judaism, 55
Judson, Adoniram, 181
Kali, 66
Kalki Avatar, 78
Karma, 92
Kipling, Rudyard, 212
Languages, 16
Last Commission of our Lord, 265
Laws of India Changed, 337
Leaven of Christianity, 332
Leipzig Lutheran Mission, 178
Length of Missionary Service, 203
Lex talionis, 111
Life of the Missionary, 197
Literacy, 27
Literary Work, 252
Literature, Christian, 301
London Missionary Society, 174
Love—a Missionary Qualification, 213
Lyall, Sir Alfred, 63
Macedonian Cry, 219
Mackensie, Sir Alexander, 320
Madras Native Christian Association, 324
Madura Mission, 182, 325
Magna Charta of Missions, 180
Mahabarata, 144
Mahratta Mission, 181
Man, Doctrines concerning, 85
Manu, Code, 108
Marriage among Hindus, 156
Martyn, Henry, 174
Mass Movements, 308, 346
Matheson, Dr., 70
McKinley, President, 336
Medical Work, 255
Metempsychosis, 97
Methodist, American, 184, 309
Miller, Dr. William, 299, 355
Mills, Samuel, 179
Mission Administration, 286
Mission Agents, 304
Mission of Great Britain in India, 45
Mission Enterprise as a Christian Principle, 230
Mission Schools, 29, 277
Missionary, The, 193
Missionary and the Mission, 222
Missionary and Missionary Societies, 219
Missionary Appliances, 300
Missionary’s Attitude towards the Non-Christian World, 215
Missionary as an Organizer, 224
Missionary Organization, 228
Missionary Results, 298
Missionary Societies, 228
Missionary Success—What is it? 298
Mohammedanism, 56, 345
Moral Standards of Christianity and Hinduism, 110
Morality and Piety, 135
Motive of Missionary, 215, 265
Motives of Christian Converts, 312
Mozumdar, Protab, 350
Muir, Sir W., 191
Müller, Max, 67
Multiplication of Missionary Activities, 284
National Congress, 34
Native Christian, 126
Native Christian Character, 130
Native Christian Community, 307, 318
Native Christian Women, 320
Native Church and Evangelism, 244
Native Officials—Their Attitude Towards Mission Schools, 279
Native States, 39
Neo-Hinduism, 344
Newcastle, Bishop of, 330
New Converts, 288
New Religious Movements in India, 348
Obscenity in the East, 126, 340
Offerings of Native Christians, 325
Opium Traffic, 42
Organic Structure of a Mission, 240
Organizations of the Native Church, 259
Oriental Christianity, 296
Origin of Hinduism, 70
Pantænus, 164
Parseeism, 57
Passive Virtues of India, 127
Pastoral Work in Missions, 245
Path of Works, 121
Patience, an Equipment of the Missionary, 212
“Patriot, The Christian,” 325
Pax Britanica, 44
People of India, 15
Persecution, 309, 315
Pessimism of Hinduism, 89
Physical Features of India, 13
Physical Fitness of the Missionary, 194
Plato, 90
Plutscho, 167
Political Condition of India, 31
Polygamous Converts, 288
Poverty of Christians, 312
Poverty of the Land, 19
Prakriti, 85
Prartanei Somaj, 349
Preaching to the Heathen—Its Character, 245
Prepossessions of a Hindu, 116
Presbyterian Mission, 182
Problems, Missionary, 263
Problems Concerning New Converts, 288
Products of Christianity and Hinduism, 114
Profanity, East and West, 126
Progressive Spirit of Christianity, 108
Property of Missions in India, 300
Protestant Christian Effort, 166
Provincial Governments, 39
Puranas, 94, 105, 343
Railroads in India, 22
Ramabai, Pandita, 321, 327
Ramanuja, 66
Reactionary Spirit in India, 293, 295
Religions of India, 54
Religious Instruction in Mission Schools, 280
Religious Mendicancy, 20, 120
Religious Toleration, 54, 109
Rest and Recreation for Missionaries, 195
Results, Missionary, 298, 332
Revival of Thought in India, 293
Right of the Christian Church to Send Missionaries, 264
Rivers of India, 14
Robert de Nobilibur, 167
Robson, Dr., 72, 344
Roman Catholic Effort in India, 165
Roman Catholics and Caste, 271
Rural People, Hindus a, 18
Saivism, 64
Sakti Worship, 66
Salvation Army, 176, 200
Sanskrit, 16
Sattianathan, Mrs., 323
Schools for Christian Children, 249
Schools for Non-Christians, 248
Schools, Mission, 303
Schultze, 169
Schwartz, 170
Scottish Missions, 175
Self-Extension of the Native Church, 260
Self-Government of the Native Church, 32, 259
Self-Support of the Native Church, 261, 274
Sell, Dr. E., 345
Serampore, 173
Shanars, 308
Sherring, Rev., 171
Sikhism, 61
Sin, Hindu and Christian Conception of, 89
Singh, Sir Harnam, 317
Sita, 145
Slater, Rev. G. T. E., 357
Social Life in India, 23, 26
Sorabjis, The, 322
Soul, Doctrine of, 86
S. P. C. K., 170
S. P. G., 172
“Spirit of Islam,” 345
Spirituality of Hinduism, 74
Spiritual Qualifications of the Missionary, 210
Statistics, Religious, 55
Strachey, Sir John, 159
Study of Christian Missions, 267
Supreme Soul, 86
Survival of the Fittest, 264
Syrian Church of Malabar, 165
Tamil Bible, 178
Tantras, 105, 343
Taxation in India, 40
Telegu Baptist Mission, 309
Theological Seminaries, 244
Theology of the Missionary, 205
Theosophy, 293
Thoburn, Bishop, 185, 206, 277, 309
Thomas, St., 163
Tinnevelly Mission, 308
Toleration, Religious, 310
Townsend, Meredith, 335
Training of the Missionary, 204
Tranquebar, 167
Triad, Hindu, 65
Turanians of South India, 316
Universe, Doctrine of the, 84
Vaishnava Sects, 65
Vaishnavism, 65
Vasco da Gama, 166
Vedantism, 67
Vernaculars of India and the Missionary, 208
Vicarious Atonement, 73
Webb, Rev. E., 302
Wifely Devotion, 145
Williams, Sir Monier, 85
Wilson, Dr., 176
Witness Bearing, 266
Women of India, 143, 147, 151, 320
Women of India, their Disabilities, 152
Women in Missionary Organization, 237
Work for Women, 256
Xavier, 166
Yesuthasan, 302
Yoga, 93, 119
Young, Work for the, 185, 257, 329
Young, Sir William Mackworth, 227
Ziegenbalg, 167
FOOTNOTES
1 Some of these, doubtless, are only well-developed dialects. Many
other, more imperfect, dialects might be added to this total.
2 The extensive famines of the last few years have reduced this
increase to two and one half per cent. during the last decade.
3 This subject is treated more fully in later chapters.
4 The rupee is at present one-third of a dollar.
5 Nearly all these Buddhists live in Burma which is included in these
statistics because it is now politically a part of India.
6 According to the census of 1901 there were 2,923,349 Christians.
7 “The Religions of India,” p. 562.
8 “The Religions of India,” p. 288.
9 “The Religions of India,” page 83.
10 Sir John Strachey’s “India,” page 311.
11 I speak vaguely because it is hard to definitely declare what a
missionary society is.
12 The returns for Congregationalists do not include the members of the
London Missionary Society Missions,—these being, apparently,
included among the “Scattering.”
13 See Toronto Convention Report of Student Volunteer Movement, p. 378.
14 Hinduism and Christianity, page 248.
15 See Dr. Sell’s article, “The New Islam,” in _Contemporary Review_,
August, 1893.
16 “The Higher Hinduism in Relation to Christianity,” page 291. This
valuable book has only just been published after my manuscript was
written.