Bishop Taylor, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, used to tell
the story of a wealthy Parsee in India whom he had persuaded to
read the New Testament. Deeply imprest, the man declared that
if he could find Christians who matched that Book he would join
them. He sought among the white people for the life of the Book,
but reported to Bishop Taylor that he had failed to find it to
his satisfaction. The latter then sent him among the native
converts, receiving his pledge that he would make as diligent
search there as he had made among the Europeans. In a short time
he returned with enthusiasm, to say that he had discovered men
and women whose lives corresponded with the Book. He himself
became a Christian and suffered the loss of wealth and friends
for the sake of the Name, and when he died of violence in
Bombay his last words were, “It is sweet to die for Jesus.”
The story points to the tremendous truth that it is not in our
conventialized Christendom that the New Testament experiences
are being reproduced most closely, but in the communities of
disciples who are freshly out of raw heathendom.--WILLIAM T.
ELLIS, “Men and Missions.”
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