Review of Work Done

XV

REVIEW OF WORK DONE

the is natural of It close at to attempt some review sort of The baptisms acliieved. first The ago first S.P.G. 1852. as work Nearly sixty years in 1854. so many What of results then. there to show ? To take the lowest ground shows S.P.G. report the last Christians, and 5150 catechumens under taining 13,541 The growth in instruction. baptised has been steady year by shown in Chapters III and VI. adult baptisms during each of the last five years in the S.P.G. Mission has been 265. The statistics of our educational work in connexion with the high school, the five boarding-schools, and the have primary day-schools, 186 almost These are schools Christian teachers trained in our own Mission. But these statistical results would be of little value 207

book kind a of this what been has of took long place as began missionary his have passed since labours are years' first, that of statistics, statistics, 230 congregations, con- number the those of as has been year, The average number of been already given. manned by exclusively

MISSIONS IN THE TELUGU COUNTRY

2o8 without recognition of the care taken in the admission baptism. of persons to The period baptism paration for of pre- During this time the conduct of the candidates, paration. observance of Christian laws, to marriage and idolatry, their keeping of Sunday, and their attendance at church, are carefully noted, and no family which does not come up to a proper standard in these respects is allowed to be baptised. during petty persecution frequent, and the behaviour is marked. baptised that while the Mission pays a large proportion of the it makes no contribution to any fund teacher's salary, of the people, and the people from the for the benefit commencement of their instruction are required to make contributions of money and labour. But nothing A Chris- can the work done by the Gospel tian village. the actual sight as study the congregation in who people the stiU A difference were. village, consisting of clean-looking white-washed houses, from eye the catches the chape], larger by contrast with the visitor wiU acquaintance the Christian people can read and write, though very few of the Sudras, their masters, can do probably heathen kin,

The ordinary period pre- of been has four three or years. their especially those relating Moreover, time the preparation of is be those of to desiring Lastly, it should be remembered good an impression give so of in the Telugu country One needs the to people. of its setting—that is, among what Christians once the are is visible at once, for the Christian midst a In the distance. is and than impressive the houses, On the closer rest village. of , some the that of find this, and, of their The Christian boys not one.

COMMUNICANTS VILLAGE CONGREGATION CELEBRATION. THE OCCASION

REVIEW OF WORK DONE

and girls go to school, whilst those of the Sudras generally We find, too, that the Christians have, in their do not. teacher, a man to lead them, who, though bred same stock as themselves, by education and character holds his own in the village among the Sudras and the officials. But perhaps the most impressive of work accomplished is the fact that Christians themselves that these enforced among them. There has been, let us suppose, a breach of the moral law, whereupon the congregation collectively demands the vindication of the law. teachers and elders seek to get the matter put A panchayat Indian of five summons and witnesses, sionary summons the Bishop's Local the four members, who sit with him, are Indians. verdict on which the Bishop exception, the verdict of Indian Christians. all this process these men are emplo5dng an old that in judicial system of the country, inherited through long But in their heathen days it was used to prevent ages. now damage the caste to ; purpose, viz. to give a judgment on ethical questions to secure not that the law of the tribe, but that the law of God, may be carried into effect. the European on depends procedure collective moral sense of the community is indispensable verdict, and indispensable again to carry to secure the Of what the judgment. out of penance, sentence of fine,

209 of the of aU the proofs is mainly by it Christian law the is The right. Christians the case, tries The the mis- signs report. Council, in which The is, with one finally acts is true It turned a nobler to is it Even if one part of the missionary, the the othervnse, avail, is or of excommunication ?

MISSIONS IN THE TELUGU COUNTRY

210 physical means are no There means of persuasion alone exist, and gregation that they have to be brought to bear on the These simple Christians make the sinner feel offender. that he has cut himself off from the Body of Christ and the Kingdom the privileges of number of those who, having once been excommunicated, to make wish, before they die, is a testimony to the hold that the Christian Church, its members, and to the power religion has on to make a member congregations privileges. In the Telugu Mission the observer may see the fruits of the Christian rehgion in the Few things strike the visitor from and of communities. India, who another part of unbroken stretches of heathendom elsewhere, more than the number villages of is a new and impressive experience to Christians. It travel by short marches from village to village, through country, and a long stretch of Let congregation each. in conversions individual of less is rare to find those examples of a visible walk that it with God which may be found in the older Churches of In England fresh conversions are taken as the the West. the power of the Gospel. most striking pro(jfs of here among the Telugu people we have, not individuals, but communities converted and plane of Is this less certain evidence of a Spiritual life. Power at work ?

compulsion moral of } is by the con- it And of Heaven. the peace with the their the of feel the of his loss uplifting of individuals familiar with the sad, is region which contain this in chapel and find a to it be granted that we see in England here than • Yet on to a higher Ufted

REVIEW OF WORK DONE

Some have asserted that among the out-castes are the result of a strong propa- ganda, as if this explained it that to make Christians there must be some preaching of the Gospel, and that it is the bounden duty of those who send them to preachers and means to make their preaching as effective as possible. But often happened has it results have followed, there has not been considerable To take the S.P.G. Missions for a strong propaganda. an example, it could hardly be said that a strong force was in the field, when for some thirty years, and those there were generally only two or very years, fruitful at work missionaries three Again, it has sometimes happened that where there has force, working among a people been a fully equivalent no respects similar, in all The L.M.S. had to work at Vizagapatam in the Telugu country for thirty years, excepting only one break of three years, without a single convert. Darling of the C.M.S., who baptised Venkayya, probably the most remarkable of aU the Mala Christians, whose conversion was the starting-point movement in that part of the country, has record that after eleven years of itinerant work he had settled down the conviction that he would almost to never see a case of conversion as the is most important of But what preaching. is that time after time the movement of the connexion masses towards Christianity born leader of their own race.

2it movements The mass the *=^"se No one would deny move- aU. "^^"'^• of the try by all place where the in that, very wide a country. in has such followed. result The Rev. T. Y. mass of the whole it on left fruit of his own all in this heralded by has been a Now the appearance of

P 2

MISSIONS IN THE TELUGU COUNTRY

212 a man of extraordinary gifts at a remarkable juncture cannot be put down to a fact, whom the student leaders, in to look for at the outset of every strong movement in India, are a conclusive answer to that mechanical theory of mission work which, put in a crude form, would give ' So many missionaries formula the : so many money, equals history quite wrongly if we would find in the agents of missionary work the secret of the power that has been manifestly at work among the Telugu out-castes. Nor it a sufficient answer to the question to say is is due that the to result the congregations, when they are emolled, are brought. disciphne coimts is true that that It drawn picture in slight Madigas heathen their in what changes their mere transference to a Christian atmo- sphere might produce. Let the reader picture to himself the brutahsing heathen worship described in Chapter IV, and then let him imagine those people gathered into a Christian congregation, and daily and reverently taking in the Morning and Evening Prayer of our their part Who could question the influence that would Church. flow from these acts of worship heathen, their worship was one Christians influences as ; they thing experience. about the uplifting power fundamental question the stfll brings these people under that

' strong propaganda.' These of missions learns so much plus We must read converts.' discipUne under which the The for much. this book and of the Malas perhaps suggest state will As into their Uves ? of the most debasing worship is the highest their Much indeed might be said but Christian of discipline, What would remain. They are discipline ?

REVIEW OF WORK DONE

; they come under it of their own accord, not constrained and often at much sacrifice. And is vain to say it they have had ulterior motives. all human actions. We need not overlook Divine action in human because affairs motives. implied, If is it these low-caste converts are drawn by motives advancement, that is directly opposed to the facts. individual has any expectation of receiving the smallest extra income for his change of faith, but, on the contrary, stands a good chance of dominant motive the of Christian congregations—^their own relations who were originally the same as themselves—lifted on to a higher They are drawn by the results of Chris- moral plane. And what are tianity. are raised from a degraded position. made hope, are self-respecting, are brought—and They control. them self-evident—out of darkness into Ught. They learn the law of Christ as a rule of becomes an attractive force towards good, and the sense of relationship to God they restraining power. If now we change our question and ask, These being it that has brought them to pass ? the results, what is the least that we can say and come from Source the further, we see how events have fulfilled themselves, not as man devised, but in better ways—how the Gospel

213 that in becoming Christians There are motives for through human works it sometimes that as it is, of self- No losing by The one pre- it. Malas they see the that is Communities these results ? They are given and acquire self- this metaphor is to The hope of heaven life. feel to be an inspiring and are good is, that the results And when, good. of all

MISSIONS IN THE TELUGU COUNTRY

214 has come to the Telugu and how the human agents have been raised up, time not on the Christian side only, but on both sides, each to meet the other—this, surely, is evidence of more than human power at work. In the light of these things we are bound to reaUse that moving among the Telugu people. down the valleys of our Nallamalla hills waters this field or that, making it green and passed through the same human hearts, now in this village, now in that. cannot tell why this ground where nor the fructifying But we see the harvest of new lives, and render forth. thanks for them to the Giver of all good.

country in the fulness of the Spirit of God has been the As a river roUing so the Spirit has fruitful, valleys, fertilising the of soil We and is chosen that left, influence wUl next burst