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The Christian Patriot, a Madras paper, recently published the following :—
Sadhu Sundar Singh is the embodiment of an idea running in the veins of every Indian, and inherited by him from the distant past. Standing before men as the homeless Sadhu, not knowing where his next meal will come from, without worldly goods, he recalls to men’s minds in these days the great ideal of renunciation.
But in this case the ideal is realized in perfection, since not for his own soul, but for the souls of others, he counts all things but loss ”’; and his great renunciation, entailing untold hardship, privation, suffering, and persecution, is his daily offering to the Saviour who gave His life for him.
Obeying the wishes of his dead-and greatly loved mother, Sundar unflinchingly faced the anger of his Hindu relatives, the ridicule of his Christian brethren, and even the mild hostility of his European friends, and became a Christian Sadhu. Thirty-three days after his baptism, when only a boy of sixteen, he took this step in the firm belicf that God had called him to this particular kind of life and work. Since that day he has never ceased to interpret the life of Him who had not where to lay His head to Indians who have been taught to revere a holy life of self-denial. Thus does he commend to his countrymen in truly eastern manner the great things for which the Saviour gave His life. This new method of preaching Christ has laid the Sadhu open to a considerable amount of criticism in the past, but in the form of a parable he explains that a Hindu will not drink water from a foreign vessel even when dying of thirst, but if that same water be offered to him in his own brass vessel he will accept it.
It may be that the time has come when Indian Christians must venture upon new forms of spiritual enterprise, for they know the needs of their own countrymen, have received the same traditions, and have the same outlook on life. Beyond question the Sadhu’s new venture has brought untold blessing to many thousands all over this great land of India.
By adopting the recognized dress of the sadhu, Sundae Singh not only opens the door to all castes and classes of society, but also even to the sacred precincts of the zanana homes of India, where on various occasions he has had unique opportunities of speaking for his Lord to the great ladies of the land. His own words are :—
The day I became a Sadhu I was wedded to these garments, and I will never divorce them of my own will.
He has frequently been asked how long he means to continue this life of self-abnegation, to which he replies :
As long as I am in this world, I have vowed my life to Him, and His grace abiding I shall never bieak my vow.
Never long in one place, he wanders over the length — and breadth of India, meeting with all sorts and conditions of men, suffering the changes of climate from the steamy tropical heat of Travancore and Ceylon to the icy cold of Tibet. Without knowledge of how food or raiment or lodging shall be provided from day to day, carrying no money or worldly possessions, Sadhu Sundar Singh continues his pilgrimage in the service of his fellowmen and to the glory of his Master Christ. In cold or heat he wears the same clothes, and even in the bitter cold of farthest Tibet he wears no shoes, for by “ his bleeding feet he attracts men to Christ.’”? Wherever he goes he carries a small copy of the New Testament in Urdu, which with the help of nature and his own experience is all he needs to enforce his powerful teaching.
In his book, The Manhood of the Master, Dr. Fosdick says that “ Jesus must have been the most radiant Man of His time in Palestine.” Looking at Sadhu Sundar Singh it is easy to realize this, for to him suffering for Christ is a real joy, and his face is expressive of the deep peace and abounding joy he has in his dearest Saviour, Christ. During fourteen years of sadhu life Sundar Singh has known all manner of trials, and endured much suffering and persecution. Like his great predecessor Paul, he has been “troubled on every side . . . perplexed, but not in despair ; persecuted but not forsaken ; cast down but not destroyed; always bearing about in. the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest ”’ in his body (2 Cor. iv. 7-10).
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