Problems Of The Future 85
PROBLEMS
OF THE FUTURE
may be the cause of deadness in personal religion. Very often, new life will burst in a congregation, if the neglect of its evangelistic witness can be brought home to it with power and precision.
Christian life will never thrive where witness-bearing and service for others are neglected.
A Roman Catholic author writing the history of Telugu Christians says:
Catholic effort has until now been mostly devoted to permanent ministrations to hereditary bodies of Christians.
Owing to the shortage of the clergy and lack of funds, it has not been possible to do pioneer work in an open field
What a tragic confession this is of any body of Christians! The Church exists to continue the work of the Master, "to seek and to save that which is lost." It labors to shepherd those that are inside the fold only in order that those within may go out and bring into the fold those outside. When any Church's energies are wholly or mainly devoted to "permanent ministrations to hereditary bodies of Christians," it has lost the reason for its existence.
But alas, of how many of the Protestant Churches is the same thing true? How many of the Church organizations in India—
Church committees, Church councils, and the like—are tempted, are wholly or mainly devoted to "permanent ministrations to hereditary bodies of Christians'—in collecting money for selfsupport, in beautifying the luxuriously furnishing churches, in permanently ministering to the material and spiritual needs of the Christians of the third and fourth generations—and to neglect the task of going out to reach those who are outside Christ and of doing pioneer work in fields open to the Gospel!
The early apostolic Church was a missionary Church. According to Harnack, "the most numerous and successful missionaries of the Christian religion were not the regular officials of the Church but the Christians themselves. Every one who seriously
1 R. C. Paul, History of the Telugu Christians, p. vii.
INDIA AND THE CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT
confessed the faith proved of service to its propaganda." Origen wrote, "Christians do all in their power to spread the faith all over the world. Some of them make it the business of their life to wander not only from city to city but from township to township and village to village in order to gain fresh converts for the Lord." Eusebius, the early Church historian, said of the pupils of the Apostles, "Very many of the disciples of that age set out on long journeys, performing the office of evangelists, eagerly striving to preach Christ to those who as yet had never heard the word of faith and to deliver to them the holy Gospels." In those days of Imperial Rome, the Syrian merchant and the Roman soldier were ubiquitous: and both became centers of the Christian propaganda.
Whatever Christianity is, it is not a selfish religion. It was founded by one Who saved others and Himself He could not save. There is no Gospel of whose content, witness-bearing is not a part. There is no Christian life which does not include in it the element of saving others. When the Church returns to this apostolic method of propagation apostolic results will follow. Oh, for an outpouring of the evangelistic zeal in our Churches! In many and many a district, mission, and Church, the revival that is wanted is the revival of evangelistic zeal. "Every communicant a witness" ought to be the watchword in all Churches!
3. Church Union. The sadly divided state of the Church in India has been mentioned. Indian Christians are one in their common allegiance to their Saviour, one in national and political outlook, and one in the fact that they are all primarily and jointly responsible for bringing India to Christ. But they are not one in their witness to truth, not one in their worship of their common
Lord, not one in those things that concern their Church life.
Union is the will of God, union was that for which our Lord Himself prayed, there is one Body and one Spirit. The words of the Tranquebar call are as true today as in 1919:
We believe that the challenge of the present hour calls us
PROBLEMS
OF THE FUTURE
to mourn our past divisions and to turn to our Lord Jesus Christ to seek in Him the unity of the body expressed in one visible Church. We face together the titanic task of the winning of India for Christ—one-fifth of the human race. Yet confronted by such an overwhelming responsibility, we find ourselves rendered weak and relatively impotent by our unhappy divisions—divisions for which we were not responsible and which have been, as it were, imposed upon us from without, divisions which we did not create, and which we do not desire to perpetuate.
There is one already accomplished union in India; the union of the Congregational and the Presbyterian Churches in South
India in the South India United Church. This union was brought about in 1907, and the Churches formerly connected with six different missionary organizations are now functioning as one ecclesiastical organization.
The union between this Church and the Anglican Church has been under negotiation since 1920. It was initiated by a few Indian ministers gathered at Tranquebar in May 1919 who sent an appeal to the Churches to take steps to unite. The S.LU.C. and the Anglican Church responded in 1920 and the Methodist
Church in 1923. Representatives officially appointed by the supreme governing bodies of these Churches have been working together now for nearly twenty years. The result of their deliberations is embodied in a booklet called The Proposed Scheme of Union. This is the first instance of a serious attempt to bring into one organic union Churches following episcopal and non-episcopal polities. The South India United Church, the South India
Province of the Methodist Church, and the South India dioceses (Madras, Dornakal, Tinnevelly, and Travancore) of the Church of India, Burma, and Ceylon are those concerned in the union.
When the negotiations are successfully carried through, there will be one united Church of South India combining in it the Churches which hitherto followed the congregational, the presbyterial and
INDIA AND THE CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT
episcopal polities, with a membership of nearly one million members.
The union movement ought not to end here. For the sake of the Kingdom of God in India, and its conversion to Christ, it ought so to spread throughout India that all the now separated
Churches—even the Roman Church—will together constitute the one Church of India. To this end must work every Indian Christian who is keen on seeing his motherland own Jesus as Lord from one end to the other.
The consummation of this end is not easy. Of all prejudices, religious prejudice is the strongest and the most obstinate. While theoretically every one is in favor of Church union, when it comes to a practical solution necessitating the giving up even of some petty custom, practice, or theory, which involves no great principle of morality, or religion, the greatest unwillingness is shown to yield the point in the interests of union. This is true of all Churches. Add to this the fact that these customs, practices, and theories have had long history in the West, and these divisions have often been mixed up with politics and social conventions; the fusion of these divided Churches is one organic unity appears well nigh impossible. But all things are possible with God, and with those who believe. Our hope lies in Indian
Christians, who are, from the nature of the case, very largely free from much of this unfortunate background. If a careful study of the essentials and non-essentials of the Christian faith is steadily pursued by all Christian leaders, if a spirit of genuine penitence for our divisions and willingness to learn from one another takes possession of all the Churches, and if a will to unite takes hold of Indian Christians—the union is one Church of India, at least of all the non-Roman Churches in this land, ought not to be an empty dream. To this end we beseech every reader of these lines earnestly to pray and to work.
4. Civic Relationships. Another situation that calls for careful thought by leaders of the Indian Church is the part that Indian
PROBLEMS
OF THE FUTURE
Christians have to play in civic life. Mention already has been made of the responsible positions acceptably occupied by educated Christian men in the public service. But every Indian Christian is a citizen of India and every man and woman must contribute his or her share in the creation of new India. We have a duty to God and to our Saviour; we have also a duty to our country and our countrymen. And that duty is not discharged merely by preaching the Gospel to all. The Christian with a new vision of service and high ideals of social conduct must be at the forefront of all movements for the betterment of society and for the amelioration of conditions that make life miserable for our fellow countrymen.
This is even particularly so in rural areas. Eighty-nine per cent of the people of India reside in villages of five thousand inhabitants and under. Their condition is often very miserable. In a great majority of these villages there is need for a protected water supply, for elementary sanitation, for simple medical help, for maternity aid, and for adult and children's education. In all these matters, Christian villages must be models and Christian village teachers and pastors can render great service in extending their attention and activities beyond the village chapel and the Christian settlement. There is enough room in the villages of India for any number of doctors, trained nurses, and rural health officers that the Christian community can produce.
The uplift of the rural community, the transformation of the village, altering the conditions of rural life—talks about these are in the air. Recently in the Convocation Address of the Madras
University were uttered these memorable words:'
Remembering that India consists mainly of villages, I can conceive of nothing more noble, and for a true son or daughter of a university nothing more appropriate, than a life spent in combating the ignorance and other social ills that hold the villages of India in thrall.
1 Dr. A. G. Hogg in his Convocation Address, 1935.
INDIA AND THE CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT
The words can be aptly and perhaps more truly applied to Christians. Nothing is more noble, nothing more appropriate for a member of the Church of Christ than a life spent in combating the social ills of rural India.
Mention must be made also of the place Indian Christians will have in the new Government of India. It is a great pity that the Indian members of the Churches of India are reckoned for political purposes as one of the many distinct Indian communities, and are given a separate communal representation. Indian Christians will henceforth be reckoned according to their numerical strength and have their so-called material interests safeguarded by so many members in the legislatures of the land in proportion to their total strength.
This is a great pity! It is tragic that the representatives of the Christian Churches should have considered themselves as a static community like others and should have consented to use their numerical strength for obtaining political power. They have opened themselves to the charge that the efforts that missions and Churches are making to proclaim the Gospel of salvation in Jesus
Christ are now exploited in the interests of politics. They have thus unconsciously invited opposition to, and criticism of, the Christian propaganda, on the ground that it is a movement directed to the transference of individuals from one political group to another, from Hindu or Moslem communal electorate to the Christian electorate, thus causing a gain of voters to one group at the cost of an equal number to the other. One of the great political leaders of the country is said to have remarked that if only the political status of his son will not be changed by his conversion to Christianity, he will have absolutely no objection for him to become a Christian. He sees that a Hindu nationalist or a congressman becoming a Christian can no longer under the present provision vote as a nationalist or congressman, but will have to merge himself in the Christian communal electorate.
The Indian Christian is by natural birth an Indian and by re-
PROBLEMS
OF THE FUTURE
ligion a Christian; and in political franchise he ought to take his place as an Indian and to give his vote for that candidate who most accords with his own political views. It is his duty to refuse to be labelled politically as a Christian and to be confined to a pigeon hole in which he can only seek the communal interests of Christians. The sooner a change is brought about in this situation, the better it will be for the honor of the Christian religion.
Christians will have to play a great and important part in the government of the land. They will have to be the conscience of the country, having in their hands a Book which is acknowledged by all to possess a supremely high moral standard. They have the duty of testing all conduct by this code and raising their voice against all corruption, selfishness, and oppression, and lending their weight to all measures that help the moral and social regeneration of the people. Their presence therefore is indispensable in the legislatures; India cannot do without them.
It is the duty of pastors and Church leaders at this time to give instruction to their people about the way in which they are to exercise their franchise. There has been in the past far too much corruption in connection with elections all over India. Hindu and Moslem candidates have been known to offer money for the erection of temples or mosques in villages and even to individual voters, to buy for money the votes of a village or an individual.
Christian voters ought to set their faces against all such corruptions and exercise their franchise for the panchayat boards, municipal corporations, or legislative councils in the interests of the country's good. Franchise is a power and a privilege and there is need to educate Indian Christians in the proper exercise of this privilege.
These new opportunities and privileges are also great tests of character. The Christian who has a vote for any constitutional body must prove the truth of his religion in the exercise of his franchise in the interests of righteousness and without fear or favor. The Christian member of the panchayat board, the mu7—-INDIA
INDIA AND THE CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT
nicipal corporation, the district board, or the legislative council must prove himself a Christian by the part he takes in the work of these bodies. He will have to set his face against all corruption, dishonesty, and hypocrisy, and against using his position to advance his own interests or those of his relations. In this new era into which India is entering, she will need—as Dr. Hogg said in the address already quoted—"as citizens men and women who have learned to think for themselves and to act as they think.
She will need those who can put country before community or party and who, even when feelings are running high, can seek a charitable and sympathetic understanding of views with which they disagree. She will need those who will speak the truth only in love, and who in love will speak nothing but the truth."
"Where if not to her Universities shall she look for such citizens"? asked Dr. Hogg. Where if not to the Indian Church, we ask, shall India look for such citizens and such public servants?
The problems before the Churches in India are many; only a few of the outstanding ones have been touched upon here.
Who is sufficient for these things? Our sufficiency is of God.
His Holy Spirit is with us to guide us and to lead us into all truth. Relying on our Saviour and His promises we can go forward in hope.
PROBLEMS OF MISSIONARY SOCIETIES AND
MISSIONARIES
IN INDIA The World War, the almost universal economic depression that followed it, and the consequent reduction in the income of most people that give to missions were the main causes of stationary or declining incomes of missionary societies in recent years. This has led to reduced grants and a reduced number of missionaries in most missions. Between the years 1931 and 1933, the number of missionaries declined from 4,040 to 3,829. Moreover, the rise of Indian nationalism and the granting of a measure of selfgovernment to Indians have raised new problems. The organiza-
PROBLEMS
OF THE FUTURE
tions of indigenous Churches and the resultant devolution of responsibility from missionaries to Indians are indications of the existence of a similar spirit in the Christian Church, and many have raised the question of the place the missionary will have in the future of the Christian movement in India.
The existence of the new spirit is undoubtedly true. And it is only right that it must lead to a rethinking of the relationships between missions and the indigenous Churches. Most missionary societies that have given any thought to the subject have already taken steps to adjust the relationships to this new situation.
The Jerusalem meeting of the International Missionary Council was significant in its emphasis on the partnership of the younger and older Churches in the world-mission of Christianity. The review of the developing relations between these two factors is given in a booklet with this significant title, Partners in the Expanding Church'
It records what has already been accomplished in recognizing the "autonomy of the indigenous Churches, the increasing selfsupport in various fields, the changing place and function of missionaries, and progress in adjustment of organizational relationships between the younger and the older Churches." Notice is taken of new organizations created in various missions, consisting of both Indians and representative missionaries, to administer work which till now had been almost entirely under committees of missionaries. Diocesanization, Indianization, devolution—these new terms illustrate the fresh move that has been made in many missions and Churches and the new orientation in missionary methods and organizations. Such a new direction given to missionary polity means that the missionary has more than ever to remember in all his actions and relationships that he is now not the director but the helper of the indigenous Church, not a master but a friend of the indigenous worker, not (in St.
1 Published by the International Missionary Council, January, 1935, to which the author owes many facts in the first part of this section.
INDIA AND THE CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT
Paul's words) a lord over the faith of the converts, but a helper of their joy. If this becomes the basic principle of all relationships, the missionary will have a very necessary place in the Church of India. Here are a few tasks and spheres in which India needs the missionary's help.
Contribution to the Church's spiritual life. Centuries of Christianity in the older Churches have certainly given missionaries an advantage which the nationals do not possess. Partners in the Expanding Church quotes a statement put forth in Japan:
The missionary can add a quickening element to the life of the Church with which he works. He must be able to contribute fresh points of view, a new emphasis on values sometimes overlooked, a steadiness and poise which springs from the background of the Christian centuries, a willingness to break new soil, try new methods and face new problems, a spirit of indifference to local opposition, prejudice and persecution, which the Christian nationals often find difficult to bear. He must help in the creation of international understanding and fellowship. Above all, he must supply a spiritual stimulus and intellectual outlook which will be an inspiration and encouragement to the Church. He must be a worthy representative of the Christian spirit of love and service which is the final and supreme apologetic for the Christian religion. For such missionary service, there is, we believe, an essential and enduring place.
All this is true of missionaries in India and their contribution to the Church life in India. We need missionaries in all well-established Churches to lead the spiritual life of the Christian people.
In training youth. The Church will for a long time to come look to the older Churches to supply them with men who can train Indian Christian youth. Training for the ministry of the Church will need the help of missionaries. The Christian colleges and the high schools need missionary educationists to impart religious and moral training to the Indian youth. Educationally,
PROBLEMS
OF THE FUTURE
we may have Indian teachers and professors as good as any from the universities of the West; but we shall still look to our mother
Churches to send us men and women who will always hold up before the Indian youth ideals of uprightness, love and selfsacrifice that will be essential in the service of new India.
3. Women Missionaries. While Indianization has grown enormously in the past twenty years in placing men in responsible positions, it has not kept equal pace in departments of women's work. One reason for this is the fact that many educated women think of marriage, and in most cases rightly, as something to look forward to, and in consequence are available for missionary service for a limited number of years only. As teachers in missionary schools and colleges for women and girls, women educationists are in great requisition. Then again Indian social usages still bar the door of the zenana to men evangelists and place insurmountable difficulties in the way even of women converts of the higher castes receiving religious instruction from men teachers.
Missionaries therefore are required to obtain entrance into the barred doors of the zenana, and to teach converts the elements of the Christian religion. They are needed to train indigenous women evangelists and women workers and to lead the work of women for women.
4. In rural reconstruction work. This is very closely related to the problem of self-support of the indigenous Church. It is the firm conviction of the writer that too much emphasis is often laid by Church leaders on the subject of self-support. It has led in some places to overlook the need for teaching the ideals of Christian stewardship, and to have recourse to assessment, compulsion, and imposition of rules and penalties to secure the funds required to carry on God's work. There is need also to reéxamine the whole question of the machinery that missionary societies have set up, which is now expected to be kept going by the offerings of the people. Giving is a spiritual grace. The keener the spiritual life of the people is, the higher will be the value they set
INDIA AND THE CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT
on an efficient ministry, and the more generous will be the offerings they make for the support of that ministry.
Rural reconstruction and efforts for economic uplift are not, then, to be undertaken to increase the giving power of the people, but as ends in themselves. Our Lord's miracles in healing disease, in feeding multitudes, and in raising the dead were not performed with any ulterior motive. They were the outgoings of His love and power in the presence of need, and His followers cannot shut their eyes from the needs round about them. The Christian message has need to be closely and directly related to "the experience and activities of men in their ordinary daily life and in their social environment." This is apt to be forgotten by the indigenous
Church. Christian missionaries must constantly keep this broader outlook and lead the activities to raise the standard of life among the Christian people and to alter the insanitary, improvident and indebted conditions in which they live. This can be done in such ways as improving the religious life of the people, through the organization of codperative banks and societies, and, by encouraging vocational education.
The poverty and misery of India's rural congregations are at bottom moral problems. Remove the drinking habit. Wage war against foolish marriage expenses. Attack the all too prevalent improvident habits of eating, dressing, giving and spending above one's income, inculcate in all laborers honest work and truth.
You have solved half the problems of rural poverty. We know that without any measure of economic relief these Christian qualities have brought prosperity and good living in many a village.
Village indebtedness is a problem that the politicians are tackling as far as they can. But Christian indebtedness is a disgrace.
When the right moral attitude is taken toward the evils that are the primary causes of debt, attempts have to be made by codperation to free the people from the clutches of the money lender. There is danger in codperative societies being looked upon by poor people as institutions for borrowing other
RIOT Bet ee MiSs Olas Hires b Unt, URS E
people's money at cheap interest, instead of as banks to receive small savings day by day, or month by month, and to help to tide over off seasons. With care and instruction, codperative movement for joint purchase, joint sale, and joint use of improved machinery and similar common efforts will assist in raising the prosperity of the people. There were in 1934 all over India twentynine codperative banks and societies under the direction of missionaries. This work requires special gifts and training. Missionaries with special qualifications are needed to take charge of this branch of work in all areas.
The Agricultural Institute, Allahabad, the rural reconstruction centers of the Y.M.C.A., the vocational and industrial schools established in many areas are to a large extent attempting solutions of the economic problem of the Indian village. They train boys and girls to the dignity of labor, and they equip them to earn an honest livelihood and to be centers of light and knowledge wherever they may be. The 107 agricultural and industrial schools that were reported in the year 1933 are doing as important a work as, if not more, than, any other institution for imparting academic education.
These are some ways by which missionaries and missionary societies may help towards rural uplift.
5. Christian Literature. The problem of Christian illiteracy and wastage in those receiving an elementary education has already been considered. Provision of books at cheap price, and a constant supply of them can alone help to preserve literacy. Then again we think of the thousands of Indian lay teachers and clergy who are like beacon lights in their own particular spheres: but their lights cannot be kept glowing and bright without a regular supply of new knowledge and fresh ideas that can only come through suitable literature. The importance of Christian literature for the growth and development of the Church cannot be too much stressed. This means writers of first-rate order, and funds to place the books at a cost within reach of all. Missionary teach-
INDIA AND THE CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT
ers, theological professors, and college lecturers all have here lines of activities which will bring light and learning to the humblest village home. There are forty mission presses established in various parts of the country. All these need to be requisitioned for the production of cheap Christian and evangelistic literature.
Missionaries can do this work best in close codperation with Indian Christian writers. What was said of Japan is true also of India.
The missionary is not called on so much to produce literature himself, but "to organize and promote its production and distribution; to advise and stimulate and especially to emphasize the value of the use of literature."
6. Reaching all classes of people. There are communities that are yet out of reach of the ordinary witness of the Church. Moslems, for instance, are neglected in many parts of India and the average Indian worker has not the knowledge needed for this specialized work. The educated English-speaking men would require the presentation of the Gospel message in ways which will compel their attention. Leadership and guidance is required also to the Indian Church in reaching the vernacular speaking people of the upper classes of Indian society. There are a few gifted evangelists like Dr. Stanley Jones that can present the Gospel most acceptably to English-speaking audiences: but many more such evangelists are needed for English as well as for vernacular work.
These are great needs, and we strengthen our appeal to the older Churches by another quotation from the Japan report:
It must be recognized that even when the national Church is established and the leadership of that Church has been taken over by the nationals, the task of evangelism has not been completed. In fact it has only begun. It will take decades or even centuries before the struggling Church will be able so to permeate the life of the nation that society will have been Christianized. Even in so-called Christian lands this is not yet the case. In missionary lands the opposing forces
PROBLEMS
OF THE FUTURE
are vastly greater and the struggle more intense. To forsake a weak and struggling Church at such a point is to invite disaster to the Kingdom of God in those lands. It is quite unfair to expect the Church in mission lands to show in decades a development which has required centuries in Western lands under circumstances vastly more favorable.
XI.
Snria's Unevanaelized Regions N spite of the comparatively rapid progress made by the Christian religion, Christians constitute a very small proportion indeed of India's total population. Out of every one hundred persons, nearly 1.8 are Christians—scarcely two per cent. In other words, ninety-eight persons out of a hundred in India are outside the Christian Church. The field still to be occupied for Christ is therefore enormous.
A study of the population figures of the British Provinces in India shows that, with the exception of Madras, Assam, Burma, and the Punjab, the proportion is much below the average of 1.8 per cent of Christians to population. The number of Christians per thousand in the several Provinces is:
Madrasa.) =) ace Cn eens Oo Bihar and Orissa .
9.1
Assan ese oy aes Pe err 23.5
United Provinces 4.2
BUrtiia ge eee ees ee O Bengali meen 3.6
Punjab/ee. eee eee EO Central Province BS Beeb, o of oo o & po
lees Central India 1.6
The condition of the Native States with one or two exceptions is appalling. The proportion per thousand of Christians is:
ABENPINGTS
Bivke) Barodaseunc gers i: aah Lemme
Cochine ews ene 77.9) Bengal States ie nen O Gentral Prov States") 7.) 20.8
Unitederova States manne Mysorezsaewne es shire ban of Kashmir idee ty Nsig nse fely.derabacl ame cmee ne me Oss Rene
yu oe
oS Bombay States ameun nee 3.6
PunyjabeStates cman nS There are large tracts of territory in each Province wholly unoccupied for Christ. Seventeen States of Rajputana and the Punjab were, in 1931, practically untouched. British Baluchistan, Sind,
[ roo |
INDIA'S
UNEVANGELIZED
REGIONS IOI Baghelkhand Agency, and the Gwalior States are all reported to be "very inadequately occupied." In Bengal there are six districts with an aggregate population of eight millions with less than one
Christian in two thousand of the population. There are five districts in the southeastern portion of the United Provinces with a population of six millions where the work must be declared to be quite inadequate. Bihar with forty-two millions has large unevangelized areas. Nearly a third of the population of the Presidency of Bombay is said to be but "slightly touched by missionary effort." There are sixty whole districts in North India, both in the Provinces and the States, where in all probability there is no Christian work whatever. The most pressing need therefore is the more adequate occupation of the States, and the Gangetic plain.
Even in the so-called occupied areas there are entire communities, classes, and castes almost untouched. Bombay deplores that certain immense groups of the people are almost entirely unevangelized.
The Jains, the Lingayats, and the Parsis are mentioned in particular. The aboriginal tribes in the South Gya District and the Santali aboriginal tribes in the Monghyr District in Bihar are almost entirely untouched. The same is practically true of the Lombardies and the Kois of the Hyderabad State. The Moslems of India, seventy-seven million strong, are not being effectively reached, especially in South and Mid-India.
It is estimated that, after allowing fully for the utmost increase in existing missionary agencies, there are in all probability nearly one hundred millions of people who cannot hear the Gospel message unless missionary agencies from the West or from India itself carry it to them in this generation.
To sum up then the needs of India in a few words:
1. Men and money to undertake the evangelization of the one hundred millions who are at present beyond the reach of the existing missionary agencies.
2. India's sons to go as missionaries and evangelists into the vast unoccupied areas of the country.
INDIA AND THE CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT
3. Evangelists and teachers to instruct and train for Church life those who are coming in large numbers in the mass movement areas.
4. Educationists, men and women, to train Christian youth for the service of the Church and service of the motherland.
5. Consecrated women to carry the light of the Gospel into the zenanas.
6. Missionaries and Indian evangelists to rouse the indigenous Church to a deeper Christian life of faith, love and devotion.
What can you do? What can I do?
Three things are possible for every reader of these lines:
Pray. "Whoever prays most helps most." It is said of Pastor Gossner (whose name we see in the German Mission at Ranchi):
He prayed up the walls of a hospital and the hearts of the nurses, he prayed up the mission stations into being, and missionaries into faith, he prayed open the hearts of the rich, and gold from the most distant lands. Regular, systematic, definite prayer accomplishes much. Gathering into one thought the need of these vast millions and realizing as never before our responsibility as witnesses of Christ, will not every reader of these lines form the earnest purpose to pray daily for the awakening of India and the coming of Christ's Kingdom in the land?
Give. The Jew had to give of his money for three objects: temple sacrifices, the upkeep of the priesthood, and the relief of the poor. Fulfilling one of these calls never exonerated him from another. All were equally binding on him.
The Christian has also three obligations to discharge. Like the Jew he has to give for the support of the ministry or for selfsupport. The obligation to the poor rests as much on him as on the Jew. But instead of the temple sacrifices, he has to give of his money for the extension of the Kingdom of God. The stewardship must be faithfully discharged in all the three ways. All are equally binding on him. Nay more. If the evangelization of the world is
INDIA'S
UNEVANGELIZED
REGIONS
"the work for which the Church was especially brought into existence," if missionary work is, in the words of the late Archbishop of Canterbury, "the greatest work of the Church," and if to "go into all the world and make disciples of all nations" is the last commission of our Lord, then the cause of evangelization affords, not one out of a whole host of calls on the Christian's purse, but the primary call on his stewardship, one that takes precedence of all other Church or social needs, and one that is most assuredly "a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God" (Phil. iv:18).
Money is power. Money is the stored up energy of human toil and can be converted again into labor. Money is myself. 1 toil for a month for the Government or the public and at the end of the month receive my salary. The cash in my pocket represents a month's worth of myself. How much of myself, then, do I give for the evangelization of India?
In view of the great commission of our Lord and of the appalling needs of India, shall we not give, give with abandon, give with sacrifice, give with joy till India be won for Christ?
Against the priceless lives of those who are going to toil in obscure places, to subsist on insufficient salaries, and to lay down their lives in active service, is it a great thing if we give of our substance to support the men who have given their all for Christ?
In view alike of the mighty possibilities of accomplishment in consecrated money and of the pitiful inadequacy of the number who are giving in proportion to their ability, shall we not consecrate all that we have for this great cause? Our prayer, our gifts, and our witness for Christ will measure alike our love for India and our loyalty to our Master who has bought us with a great price.
3. Go. Prayer and giving unaccompanied by work are of little avail. Every Christian, of course, is a witness, a missionary to those with whom in his daily walk of life he comes into contact.
But the needs of the Indian Church and of the unevangelized
INDIA AND THE CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT
millions can be met only by men and women who will surrender their entire lives for the direct work of Christ.
It was Francis Xavier, William Carey, Alexander Duff, and a host of other men who, for the Gospel's sake, forsook their country, their friends, and their home, that did the most effective work in establishing the Kingdom of God in our land. Missionary work involves sacrifice. The service of the Church cannot offer brilliant worldly prospects. And yet both need men and women.
Garibaldi, the Italian patriot, calling for volunteers to save his country, said: "Young men, I have nothing to offer you but cold, hunger, and rags, let him who loves his country follow me."
Thousands of the youth of Italy, the flower of the nation, followed him and laid down their lives for the freedom of their motherland. Shall we do less for our Master in India?
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Index Animism, 21-3 Arya Samaj, 45-6 Hinduism, 33-46 Home Missions, 73-4 Bhagavad Gita, 37-42 Brahmanas, 34-6 Brahma Samaj, 44-5 Brotherhood of St. Andrew, 80-1 Buddhism, 23-6 India Sunday School Union, 59 Indian Church Problems, 83-92 Indian Church Measure, 74 Indian Missionary Society of Tinnevelly, 80 Infirmities, 5-6 Islam, 27-32 Carey, William, 55-6, 87, 104 Caste, 7-8, 41, 43 Child Marriage, 10-11 Christian Higher Education, 60 Christian Literature Society, 60 Christians in India, 70-1, 90-2, 99-100 Church of India, Burma and Ceylon, 74 Church Union, 86-8 Communal Representation, 90-2 Jacobite Church, 50, 51 Jainism, 16-18 Jerusalem Conference, 93 Judaism, 14 Judson, Adoniram, 56, 57 Kinnaird College, 63 Koran, 27-8 Devadasis, 12-13, 48 Devolution, 93 Diocesanization, 93 Duff, Alexander, 58-9 Leipzig Missionary Society, 53-4 Lindsay Commission on Christian Colleges, 63
Literacy, 6-8, 9-10 Literature, Christian, 97 London Missionary Society, 57 Lutheran Churches, Federation of, 73 Lutheran Period, 53-4 Edinburgh Conference, 62 Education of Christians, 60-1, 94 Epidemics, 4 Evangelism in the Indian Church, 76-9, 84-6 Exterior Castes, 48 Mar Thoma Syrian Church, 51 Mar Thoma Syrian Christian EvangeliFraser Commission on Village Educacal Association, 82
Mass Movement Survey, 64-8, 77 Missionaries—their need and place in tion, 63 India, 68, 94-104 Mission of Fellowship, 63 Gossner Evangelical Lutheran Church, 57, 74, 102 Government of India Act 1935, 90 Growth of Christianity, 50-82 National Christian Council, 62,63,75,79 National Christian Review, 63 National Missionary Society of India, 51, 80 Harijan Sevak Sangha, 47 Harijan Uplift Movement, 8, 46-7 [ 105 ]
INDIA AND THE CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT
United Church of North India, 73 Population of India, 1-2, 14 Primary Education, 60 Upanishads, 37-8 Urban Population, 2 Roman Period, 52-3 Rural Population, 2, 89 Vedas, 34 Vellore Medical School, 63 Sarda Act, 10-11, 46 Schwartz, Frederick, 53-4 Sikhism, 18-20 See Cees
Sa. 72-3 Social Reform Movements, 46 Syrian Period, 50-1 Widows, 11-12 Women of India, 10 Women's Christian College, Madras, 63 World's Missionary Conference, Edinburgh, 62, 69
Xavier, Francis, 52, 64, 104 Temple Entry Movement, 8, 47-8 Theosophy, 46 Tirupattur Ashram, 81 Ye MaiGar A 605007)
Y. W. C. A., 60
Unevangelized Areas 100-2 in India, 66, Zenanas of India, 10, 57 Zoroastrianism, 15-16 PB=07931 5h 9 C
BR Azariah, Vedanayskam Samuel, Bp. of Dornakal
1874-19h5.
AQ India and the Christian erate With a foreword by John Wilson Wood.
New York, National Council, Protestant Episcopal Churc 1938.
106p.
20cm.
1. Christianity=-Indla, I. Title, ) CCSC/ehw