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CHRISTIAN JOURNALISM
The Hindu is an English paper published daily from Madras.
It has over one hundred and fifty thousand subscribers which, for a country where English is not the mother tongue of the people, is very good circulation.
The paper takes a good deal of trouble to provide careful reviews of new books every Sunday.
Books on Hinduism are sent to Hindu scholars, books on Islam to Muslim scholars and books on Christianity to Christian reviewers.
From the year 1930 to the present day the Editor has been sending books to me for review.
Looking through my files I find that the books sent to me were of various types and of unequal value.
I think readers of this book will be interested in a line of thought which I sometimes followed in the reviews.
While taking root in different countries Christianity has been influenced by the distinctive genius of different nations.
My house 'Prospect' at Kodaikanal, in which some of these reviews were written, commands a beautiful view.
There are long stretches of plains with green fields, avenues of trees, meandering streams and large sheets of water.
In the distance are ranges of. blue hills.
Over this vision of beauty masses of clouds are often found floating.
Early in the morning the sun covers the whole region with a mantle of glorious light.
This lovely view is always more or less the same but people are attracted by different aspects of it. To some the main charm lies in the blue hills lying in the distance; to others the plains with their signs of human industry are the great attraction, and to others the masses of clouds drifting lazily along are of particular interest; there are yet others who are drawn by the play of light and shade as the sun or the moon throws its radiance on the landscape.
While the Christian Gospel is the same to every one, different people are attracted by different parts of it.
The Anglo-Saxon mind develops its practical aspects, the German mind its philosophical side and so on.
In Archbishop William Temple we see. how Christ shaped the life and work of an Englishman.
My memory goes back to
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the year 1921 when he gave a course of lectures in Glasgow to students.
It was a joy to hear those lectures.
There was a great deal of calm and persuasive reasoning in them and' one felt that one was listening to the sincere and genuine approach of an alert, well-read and thoughtful man to the fundamental problems of the Christian faith.
The range of Temple's interests was wide and far-reaching.
He was a keen theologian and wrote several valuable books. He was an ardent advocate of the application of the Gospel message to social problems and took an active interest in the education of working people.
He was one of the acknowledged leaders in the movement for—Church Union.
He kept in constant touch with the problems 'of missionary work abroad.
His influence reached far beyond the Church of England.
The central thesis of his book Christian Faith and Life, which I reviewed for The Hindu, was that companionship with Christ is the prime business of life.
It is not the duty merely of religious people.
Everyone who wants to do his job well must seek this fellowship with Christ.
As he put it well:
Our characters are shaped by our companions and by the objects to which we give most of our thoughts and with which we fill our imaginations.
We cannot always be thinking even about Christ, but we can refuse to dwell on any thoughts which are out of tune with Him. We can, above all, quite deliberately turn our minds towards Him when those thoughts come in.
You will find it is not possible for a vivid memory of Jesus Christ and an unclean thought or "a mean and treacherous desire to be in your mind at the same time.
It cannot happen. What we have to drill ourselves in—it means drill—is quite constantly to bring our minds, thoughts, desires, hopes, plans, and ambitions back to the touch-stone; will they stand without discord in His presence?
In the life and writings of Dr Albert Schweitzer we see a German genius coming under the sway of Christ.
Early in life he made a mark for himself as a bold theologian by his book, The Ouest 'of the Historical Jesus.
We was a gifted musician and when he gave recitals on an organ large crowds of people flocked to
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hear him.
But the call to serve as a doctor in Africa came to him.
He read about the miseries of the people of Africa. He felt that men in Europe who had profited much by the advance of Medical
Science and knew a great deal about disease and pain-and discovered innumerable means of dealing with them had a duty to live in Africa and relieve the suffering of the people there. In response to this call he entered a medical college and_ studied medicine.
From the year 1913 to the end of his long life he laboured as a doctor on the edge of a primeval forest.
He recorded his experiences and ideas in his autobiographies, which I had the good fortune to review.
While serving the people of Africa as a doctor he also found time to write two profound volumes on the Philosophy of Civilization. He had many gifts— skill in music, courage as a speculative theologian, a deeply philosophical mind, boundless compassion for all living beings, unwearied industry; all these gifts he offered up to Christ who blessed them abundantly.
When Berdyaev passed away in 1948 The Times said that he had been one of the greatest philosophers and prophets of our time.
This is high praise indeed.
Born in 1874 near Kiev in Russia of well-to-do parents, at an early age, when he was about thirteen, he had a sudden transformation and began to take a deep interest in philosophy.
- At 17 he passed an examination in Mill's Logic and Kant's Critique of Pure Reason.
His father was a cultured man and a free thinker.
His mother was of French origin and a devout Roman Catholic.
The boy was left a good deal to himself, the only other child in the family being a brother who had been born fifteen years earlier.
While the life of other young men was full of gaiety and laughter Berdyaev lived a serious, reserved life.
He had close contacts with a trade union organisation.
He came under the spell of Marxism like many other Russian intellectuals of his day.
He had strong political and economic convictions and took part in many heated and learned discussions, in public and in private.
In fact all through his life he was in contact with many fertile minds and had prolonged debates with them on philosophical and religious subjects. When the Russian revolution broke out in 1917 he saw that some of the old crimes of the Russian rule crept into the country under new names.
In place of the old Czars there were -new dictators exercising power ruthlessly over the life of people.
Berdyaev was an
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idealist. He stood for freedom and the dignity of man. He spoke boldly against the Communist rulers in Russia.
After severe warnings he was banished from Russia in 1922.
He spent the rest of his life first in Berlin and then in Paris, lecturing and writing for twenty-five years on a wide range of subjects, philosophical, religious, economic and political.
He was no armchair philosopher.
He had Seen for himself the evils of Communism in Russia.
He had spoken forcefully against them while he was in Russia, unafraid of the consequences.
Now as an exile he was able to take an unbiassed view of things.
He had many followers and exerted much influence.
His great contribution to mankind was his clear and emphatic advocacy of the higher and nobler values of the new social forces at work.
He moved far from his early devotion to Marxism and became a loyal member of the Russian Orthodox Church.
He felt sure that that Church had a real service to render to the Christian world, both Catholic and Protestant.
He gave people a new idea of the Christian Church in its true dimensions.
In him we see a Russian mind surrendering itself to the power of Christ.
The story of Kagawa's life reads like a romance.
He has been described as one of the leading figures in the Japanese Christian world and probably in all Japan.
He made his mark upon the life of Japan as labour leader, economist, novelist and evangelist.
His remarkable intellectual and spiritual achievements may _ be briefly recounted here.
Born in 1888, his father died early, and he was brought up by an uncle.
He joined a Bible Class with a view to learn English, and became a Christian.
While studying theology he had an attack of tuberculosis and had to go to a fishing village near the sea to get well.
While living there, he came into close and intimate contact with the poor and developed a desire to work for them.in the slums.
He began this work in Shinkawa and found innumerable opportunities to love and suffer.
He shared with the poor all that he had, even his food and clothes.
Every evening he preached the Gospel message.
His work grew and he started a dispensary.
He taught children from 5 to 7 in the morning and from-7 to 8 at night.
But feeling that any social work he might do like this would only be remedial, he began to plan for dealing in a large way with economic and social questions.
In order to fit himself for this larger life of usenett
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fulness he spent a period of study at the University of Princeton in America.
Soon after his return he began organising workers into unions and in 1921 was put in prison as he helped the dockers in a strike.
In 1923 Tokyo was ravaged by earthquake and bcd The Government, which before had imprisoned him, now entrusted him with relief work.
From 1923-27 he worked hard at this relief work.
He worked for universal suffrage and for organising the proletariat as a political party.
He went to Europe and studied the organisation of Socialist parties there.
In February 1928 he went on an election campaign in Japan in favour of six Christian candidates.
In 1926, after long private meditation, he disclosed the plan for an evangelistic campaign for a million souls.
His purpose was to devote half his time to evangelistic work for three years, leaving the other half free for writing and social service.
Kagawa combined service with prayer in a remarkable way.
All these innumerable activities arose from his deep religious experience as a Christian.
He was a mystic who lived in close communion with God and translated into every-day life the depth and passion of his love for God and man.
Lakshmibai Tilak's vivid and interesting autobiography was sent to me for review.
The hero of that book is her husband, Narayan Vaman Tilak.
He was born in the year 1861 in the Maratha country, of strictly orthodox Brahman parents.
He was a deeply religious man and studied with great care the religions of India.
He was not satisfied with any of them and wanted to found a new religion. When travelling by train a missionary gave him a copy of the New Testament which immediately gripped his attention.
After much study and prayer he was baptised as a Christian in 1895.
His wife refused to join the Christian Church, but due to his continued persuasion she followed in her husband's footsteps after five years of separation.
His greatest contribution to the life of India, which he loved passionately, was made through his poetry.
He composed many Christian lyrics and poems which are widely sung today in the'
Maratha country.
Towards the latter part of his life he was very anxious to write a classical Life of Christ and so began the e*