Part I, Chapter VI — How the General Synod Gained Control of the Guntur Mission
MISSION
While Heyer was establishing the Mission of the Pennsylvania Ministerium at Guntur, affairs in America were rapidly drifting toward its possession and control by the General Synod.
On the eve of his departure from America, Heyer had offered to report regularly to the General Synod's missionary society and to consider himself partly in its employ, provided it annually contributed $200 toward his salary. He undoubtedly made this offer with che consent of the executive committee of the missionary society of the Pennsylvania Ministerium and not without some hope that, even though he had declined to be the General Synod's missionary, its mis- sionary society would co-operate with that of the Minister- ium. There was sufficient reason for this hope, for at the same meeting of the General Synod's Society, to which Heyer sent his resignation, an amendment was offered to strike out that article of the constitution which bound the society to "the most perfect harmony and co-operation with the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions." Before the next biennial meeting of the General Synod and its mis- sionary society, in 1843, the letters of Heyer, published in "The Lutheran Observer," as well as the "Kirchenzeitung," reporting his successful beginning in Guntur, had materially strengthened the position of those in the General Synod who desired co-operation with the Pennsylvania Ministerium in foreign mission work.^ The proposed amendment to its con- ^ In an ofBcial letter from the Rev. J. G. Morris, D. D., corresponding secretary of the General Synod's missionary society, the society of the Pennsylvania Ministerium was informed at its annual meeting in May, 1842, that the former society felt inclined to co-operate with the latter but regretted that its constitution forbade it and hoped that the barrier would be removed. At the meeting of the society of the Ministerium in Philadelphia, 1843, a pl^n of co-
6o AMERICAN EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN MISSIONS IN INDIA stitution was adopted by the General Synod's society at its meeting May 25, 1843. The barrier of this co-operation hav- ing been removed, the society at once elected a missionary to labor in conjunction with Heyer in Gantur.^
Walter Gunn, the missionary elected, was born June 27, 1815, in Carlisle, Schoharie County, N. Y. The manner in which he was led to enter the holy ministry and become a foreign missionary has been described as follows i^ "The starting point of our (the General Synod's) foreign mission was in Cobleskill, Schoharie County, N. Y., in the year 1837. At the house of Colonel Schaeffer, about half a mile east of the old brick church, then occupied by the sessions of the operation with the General Synod's society, prepared by the Rev. H. N. Pohlman of the latter society and proposed by a joint committee of the respective executive committees, was adopted. It embraced the following articles of agreement: "The Evangelical Lutheran Foreign Missionary Society, deeming it important that the efforts of the friends of foreign missions in the Lutheran Church in this country should be more fully concentrated, proposes to form a connection with the Missionary Society of the Pennsylvania Synod upon the following general principles:
"i. Each society shall, for the present, remain separate and distinct under its own peculiar organization, care being taken, however, to promote in their several spheres of action the utmost harmony and love. "2. Each society shall have the nomination and appointment of its own missionaries and shall provide for their embarkation, settlement and support; each taking upon itself the whole management of all the agencies for collecting funds for this purpose. "3. Both societies shall occupy the same field of labor in the heathen world and whatever differences of opinion there may be at home, shall endeavor, as far as is consistent with the imperfection of human nature, to have but one interest and one aim in the foreign field. "4. The missionaries of each society shall labor together and under the direction of the several executive committees, mutually adopt such plans for the furtherance of the Gospel and the upbuilding of the Redeemer's Kingdom by the establishment of schools, catechetical lectures and preaching and the distribution of Bibles and tracts, as shall seem to be advisable, and shall report jointly to the secretaries of both societies.
"5. This joint mission shall hereafter be known as the American Lutheran Mission. "6. There shall be an interchange of one or more commissioners at each yearly meeting of the several societies for mutual consultation, prayer and effort in relation to the interest of the joint mission."
Unique, amicable, yet clearly impracticable, this plan never went into effect. The General Synod's society ratified the agreement May 16, 1845, at its meeting in Philadelphia, but before it could be put to a practical test that society had gained complete control of the Guntur Mission.
1 The missionary's salary was fixed at $600 a year.
2 By the Rev. J. Z. Senderling, corresponding secretary of the General Synod's missionary society and pastor at Johnstown, N. Y.
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THE BEGINNING OF A TELUGU LETTER
A HINDU TEMPLE IN RAJAHMUNDRY
A TELUC.l' I'.AKI'.KR AT WORK
TKLL'CJL' \\(JMAN GRINDINC GRAIN
Tlutop stone revolves on the lower and larger one, and the grain is ground etwet-n tlieiu.
HOW GENERAL SYNOD GAINED CONTROL OF GUNTUR 6 Hartwick Synod, four ladies conferred with each other respect- ing the importance of doing something for God and His Church. One of them was the lady of the house, an elderly sister of said church; the other three were wives of clergymen, members of the synod. A proposition was offered by one of the latter, saying, 'Let us do something that will cheer the hearts of our ministers during these troublous times.' Two prayers were offered to the throne of grace, not without many tears, when the subject of educating young men with the view to labor among the heathen, was discussed. The young man subsequently selected and destined for the foreign field was Walter Gunn, a pious and active member of Dr. Lintner's church in Schoharie, N. Y. This was the first actual move toward the founding of our foreign mission." After having studied for a while in Schenectady, N. Y., and in Hartwick Seminary, Gunn entered the Theological Seminary in Gettysburg, Pa., from which he was graduated in 1843. He was licensed by the Hartwick synod and then appointed as the General Synod's first foreign missionary. Sometime during the summer of 1843 he was united in mar- riage to Lorena Pults, a member of the Lutheran church in Ghent, N. Y.
During the months intervening between his appointment and his departure from America, Gunn devoted himself to deputation work, delivering mission addresses and gathering offerings for the India Mission. He delivered fifty-six mission addresses in forty-four different places in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland, arousing considerable interest in the foreign mission work of the General Synod, but also meeting some opposition and no little indifference. "The report was scattered in one community," wrote Gunn, "that my wife and I were going to India to set up a store and sell the things that were furnished as an outfit." "Others supposed that we could have no other object in view than to go out and travel and see the country; and others, again, declared positively that they knew we should never go so far, many thousand miles away, among the heathen, concluding that money con- tributed for our support was thrown away."
62 AMERICAN EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN MISSIONS IN INDIA
At the public service held in connection with the meeting of the East Pennsylvania Synod in October, 1843, the Rev. Walter Gunn was solemnly commissioned as a foreign mis- sionary, the Rev. Dr. Benjamin Kurtz, chairman of the execu- tive committee of the General Synod's missionary society, de- livering the charge and the Rev. Dr. J. G. Morris, correspond- ing secretary, reading the instructions of the committee to its missionary. In his response Gunn, among other things, said: "If it is our duty to go to the heathen land, it is yours to uphold us there. You give your money, we give more: we give our lives." In his case these words were hterally fulfilled.
November 18, 1843, the Rev. Walter Gunn and wife sailed from Boston in the "Charles," a sailing vessel bound for Cal- cutta. The journey, a circuitous and expensive one, lasted exactly seven months, all but the last short stage from Masulipatam to Guntur being by sea. After a brief stay in Maulmain, Burma, they proceeded to Calcutta, where seven days were spent in the midst of a fearful outbreak of cholera.^ Although the plague was not permitted to harm them, they found the heat very trying. From Calcutta to Madras and again from Madras to Masulipatam, saihng in uncomfortable coasting vessels, they endured no httle discomfort. On reach- ing Masulipatam they found awaiting them a palankeen and bearers, and a bullock-cart for their baggage, sent by Mr. Stokes.2
Joy filled the heart of the pioneer as he grasped the hand of his first colaborer and welcomed him at Guntur, June 18, 1844. Heyer rejoiced not only because a "Timothy " had been sent to him, but also because the second missionary was the visible evidence of the active co-operation of the General Synod with the Pennsylvania Ministerium in the Guntur Mission, for which he had devoutly prayed to God and had earnestly pleaded with the Lutheran Church in America.
^ Gunn reported that 28,000 died of the plague in two months.
* Gunn had written to Heyer from Calcutta, received an answer in Madras and from that city had notified Heyer of his intended arrival in Masulipatam. At every stage in the early history of the mission we note evidences of Mr. Stokes' liberal interest.
HOW GENERAL SYNOD GAINED CONTROL OF GUNTUR 63 For a week, until they were able to rent and occupy a bungalow, the Rev. Mr. Gunn and his wife were the guests of Mr. Stokes, concerning whose Christian character and good works Mr. Gunn had occasion frequently to speak in laudatory terms. They found in Guntur a more pleasant place of residence than they had anticipated after their experiences in Calcutta and Madras.^
Gunn immediately applied himself to the study of Telugu, meanwhile teaching Enghsh to a class of a dozen Hindu boys, conducting a Bible study class, attended by Enghsh residents, and occasionally preaching at the Enghsh services on Sunday. Soon after their arrival Mrs. Gunn began to teach English and needle-work to a small class of Hindu girls. November 6th Gurm made his first attempt through an interpreter to dehver a sermon to a purely heathen audience of about sixty persons who had gathered around him in one of the streets of Guntur. He described his experience in the following words: "Some of this strange audience was entirely naked, most of the others wore only a strip of cloth about their loins and another about their heads. A few had an additional covering thrown over their shoulders. Several women stood off at a short distance with their large chatties (water-pots) on their heads and listened to what I had to say. My address was short, for I perceived from the movements of the people that there was a disposition among them to become turbulent and I passed through the group and went quietly to my home, thankful that I had had an opportunity of spreading a few of the truths of God's Word before the minds of the benighted. They seemed offended at the idea of being saved through the merits of another. Poor, deluded men, though immersed in guilt, they hope to be saved through their numerous wash- ings, fastings and pilgrimages; and the doctrine which strikes at the root of their system of salvation by works is rejected by them with scorn."
About February i, 1845, Gunn took charge of a small ^ Gunn described Guntur as a city of about 16,000 inhabitants, among whom were about 3000 Mohammedans, situated in a fertile plain, thirty miles in a direct line from the sea, whence cool breezes reached it during a portion of each day.
64 AMERICAN EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN MISSIONS IN INDIA Telugu school in East Guntur, where he also preached at times with the help of an interpreter. While he thus was getting acquainted with the work of the Mission, Heyer con- tinued to labor with his usual vigor and with no httle success. The day of the consecration of the first mission-house, built on the lot that had been leased from the government, was a mem- orable one in Heyer's first term of mission service. On June 30, 1844, at eleven o'clock in the morning about 200 persons assembled in the new brick building for the conse- cration service. Heyer and Gunn delivered appropriate ad- dresses and Valett preached the consecration sermon. The entire cost of construction, about $800, was contributed by the South Carolina Synod's Missionary Society, which had not only permitted the use of the $500, originally intended for a printing-press, for this purpose, but also added what was necessary to finish the building. The Guntur schools, enroll- ing 90 boys and 25 girls, were moved into the mission house which on Sunday was used for church purposes, and Heyer occupied a part of the building as his dwelling. Considerable surprise was expressed in other missions at the flourishing condition of the Guntur girls' school.^ Heyer had started this school in November, 1842, with fifteen girls taught by a young Hindu under his supervision. A year afterward its supporter, Mrs. Walker of Guntur, died, and the question of its continuation became a matter of grave concern to Heyer. Then, directed by a special Providence, a letter reached Heyer December 2, 1843, containing $60, which had been sent from America nine months previously. It had been written by Miss S. M. Stoever, the secretary of the missionary society of the infant department of the Sunday School of St. Matthew's Church in Philadelphia, the Rev. T. Stork pastor, and con- tained an offer to support the girls' school. In his letter of grateful acknowledgment Heyer described the school as one which had an enrollment of twenty-one girls, from four to
1 A successful Hindu girls' school was a unique institution before the year 1840. The sacred books (Shastras) forbid the education of women, and they themselves consider it a disgrace to be educated. Only temple (nautch) girls are educated. Despite the efforts of Protestant Christianity this is still the prevailing condition among Hindus.
HOW GENERAL SYNOD GAINED CONTROL OF GUNTUR 65 twelve years of age, four of whom were children of native Christian parents, three Romanists, two Mohammedans and the rest Hindus. Some of the pupils who had been entirely ignorant when the school was begun, had learned to read; all of them were attending divine worship on Sunday and had committed a number of Christian hymns. In honor of its patron in America this first girls' school was called St. Mat- thew's Evangelical Lutheran School. In July, 1844, it was placed in charge of Mrs. Gunn.
The boys' schools in Guntur continued to prosper during the years 1844 and 1845, Heyer reporting an average attendance of 100; but during this period the school inPrattipadu and one in the vicinity of Guntur were discontinued.^
The American Bible and Tract Societies, in 1843, con- tributed Bibles to the value of $200, and thereafter con- tinued to supply the missionaries with Bibles and tracts as they were needed. The Madras Auxiliary Society likewise furnished a considerable number of Testaments and tracts, free of cost, to the mission.^
Toward the close of the year 1844, five Lutheran mission- aries lived in Guntur. Besides Heyer and Gunn, there were Valett of the North German Missionary Society, who had not yet decided on a mission field, and two missionaries of the Dresden (Leipsic) Society, the Revs. Ochs and Schwartz, who had been sent from Tranquebar to select a Telugu field near Guntur. The presence of so many Lutheran missionaries at one point in the Telugu country revived the thought of a printing establishment. In July, 1844, Mr. Stokes offered to set apart Rs. 500 for this purpose on condition that a like sum should be raised in America. An appeal was published in America; but before a sufficient sum could be raised the Dresden missionaries had returned to Tranquebar without establishing a Telugu mission, and Heyer had started on his ^ The money contributed by St. John's Church in Philadelphia was used for the support of a Telugu school in Guntur after the one in Prattipadu was discontinued. ^ Heyer's and Gunn's letters show that they were very liberal in the free distribution of Bibles, Testaments and tracts. Experience has taught missionaries prudence rather than liberality in this direction.
66 AMERICAN EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN MISSIONS IN INDIA return voyage to the United States. The enterprise was, therefore, again abandoned.
The second annual report of the Guntur Mission written by Heyer, September i6, 1844, showed commendable prog- ress. Besides three children, one of whom was Luther, the infant son of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Gunn, Heyer had bap- tized seven Hindus of adult age, after having carefully in- structed them. The number of communicants was twelve, four of whom were converts. The other baptized converts were not admitted to the Lord's Supper, because, as Heyer puts it, ''we do not deem it advisable to administer the Lord's Supper immediately to all who have been baptized." Two marriages were solemnized. The number of funerals conducted was four, one for an adult Hindu Christian and three for children, two of whom had died unbaptized. Four schools, one English and three Telugu, with an enrollment of over 100 pupils, were being conducted in the Guntur mission house. Of the three Telugu schools, the one for girls then enrolled 25 pupils. The daily instruction in each school was begun and ended with devotional and catechetical exercises. Concern- ing the English school, apparently Heyer's pride, he wrote at some length in April, 1845, describing it as a school of three grades, in the first of which, consisting of fourteen pupils, be- sides arithmetic, geography and grammar, Biblical History was being taught. Of the fourteen pupils, three were Mohammedans, one a Rajput, nine Sudras and one a pariah, a strange and uncommon minghng of castes for those days. Besides the Guntur schools, two others were maintained in the vicinity of the city. For one of these, situated a mile from Guntur in a village bordering on Old Guntur, a schoolhouse costing Rs. 200 was built and opened April 7, 1845. On Sunday, May 18, 1845, eleven persons, seven of whom were adults, were baptized; and early in July of the same year a young man from Devalapilli, 18 miles north of Guntur, was baptized, thus raising the number of baptisms since the beginning to eighteen adults and six children. This was probably the total number of baptisms by Heyer, there being no record of additional ones during his last months in India. Although
HOW GENERAL SYNOD GAINED CONTROL OF GUNTUR 67 this number is not large, it is not strange that Heyer did not baptize more. It must be remembered that he was beginning a foreign mission, and many a foreign mission has begun with fewer conversions during its first two years. Further- more, Heyer had time to learn scarcely more than the rudiments of Telugu, so that he seldom, if ever, preached in the vernacular. To preach through an interpreter is to fail to make that direct and personal impression on one's hearers, which is so essential to successful missionary work. Heyer's chief strength lay in the conduct and control of schools, in which he achieved acknowledged success.^ The support which Heyer received from the Church in America continued to be meagre and inadequate. From the treasurer of the Missionary Society of the Pennsylvania Min- isterium, the Rev. J. C. Baker, D. D., he received his salary, $600 a year, and two or three hundred dollars a year in ad- dition for school work. 2 From friends in Guntur he received $1164 (Rs. 2910) up to September i6, 1844. From sources in America outside of the Pennsylvania Ministerium he oc- casionally received small sums of money. His total income from all sources for all purposes varied between $1000 and $1500 a year for the first five years of the Mission.
It must be admitted, however, that despite its meagre income for foreign missions, the Missionary Society of the Pennsylvania Ministerium spent the larger portion of its funds for the Guntur Mission. The following is an exhibit of the society's finances:
68 AMERICAN EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN MISSIONS IN INDIA
While Heyer in India was growing discouraged because of the insufficient support from America, some of the mem- bers of the Missionary Society felt that too large a proportion of its funds was being devoted to the foreign mission. In an editorial in the "Lutherische Kirchenzeitung," May i, 1845, ^ forcible expression of this feeling was published. "Brother Heyer," wrote the editor, "left this country in November, 1841, and, therefore, will have been absent four years next November. His travelling expenses and outfit money amounted to $600. He was six months en route for India, during which time he was paid a salary of $300. His return passage would cost not less than $600, even though his salary were to be discontinued during the period of his voyage. The total amount of his travelling expenses in four years, therefore, would be $1500. The amount expended on the mission work during this time is more than $4000, making a grand total of $5500 for the foreign mission which Brother Heyer now wishes to forsake without giving a single reason which, in our opinion, makes his return necessary. Nothing but sickness can or should compel his return. Brother Heyer, however, has always enjoyed good health, as Brother Gunn's last letter also states. We are, therefore, of the decided opinion that the missionary society should not grant the request if it intends to carry on the mission. "Apart from the effect which a refusal of the request may have on the conduct of Brother Heyer, the existing state of affairs leads us to raise the question, whether the missionary society should continue to spend two-thirds of its income for its foreign mission and the other one-third for home mis- sions at this time, while, through the natural increase of our population and through immigration, the number of our brethren in the faith is increasing to an inconceivable extent, and, literally, hundreds of thousands are living here without any church connection whatever, even though they may desire the preaching of the Word ; and many of the congrega- tions now existing are unable, because of their poverty, to pay their pastors and must be satisfied with a divine service once every eight or twelve weeks. Seeing that many of our
HOW GENERAL SYNOD GAINED CONTROL OF GUNTUR 69 pastors in this country are obliged to live in great want, and a considerable number of our congregations are burdened with debts resting on their church buildings or, as yet, have no church buildings, could not the $5500 have been used to better advantage for home missions and would not this money have produced better results here than in India; and is it right to have allowed so much money to be diverted for the benefit of strangers, whilst our own church in America has been bleeding at all points? In our humble judgment this is buying the honor of having a foreign mission at too great a price, and we believe that our foreign mission should be abandoned. Others may be of another opinion, and we are ready to be otherwise convinced, wherefore we are willing to give them a hearing in these columns. It would please us to hear an expression of the contrary opinion before the meeting of the missionary society, in order that its members might weigh the arguments and, after due deliberation, come to a final decision. We have not written our judgment hastily. Indeed, we said the same thing at the meeting of the synod in Harrisburg; nor have we since had reason to change our mind. Nevertheless, we embrace this opportunity to call for a discussion of the whole matter." The first intimation Heyer gave of his desire to return to America was written in a letter dated July 6, 1844, not quite two years after he had begun the Guntur Mission. The Executive Committee referred the matter to the Missionary Society at its meeting in Reading, May 17-21, 1845, which decHned to authorize Heyer's return; but Heyer in almost every letter continued to refer to his contemplated departure from India some time in 1846. The Executive Committee, however, finally decided to yield to the missionary's persistent request ; and the Missionary Society at its meeting in Orwigsburg, June 8-10, 1846, resolved to pay the expenses of his return voyage, but to discontinue his salary as soon as he left Guntur. Before he had received the written permission of the Executive Committee, Heyer left Guntur, December 22, 1845, landing at New York early in August, 1846. His precipitous and unexpected return to America was due to a combination
70 AMERICAN EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN MISSIONS IN INDIA of causes. In the first place, he was disheartened because of the lack of support for the mission work from America. In the second place, he was homesick. Furthermore, his restless spirit demanded another change of scene and occupa- tion. He wished, also, to come back and stir up the Church at home to more vigorous effort for its foreign mission ; and when he believed that Gunn had made sufiicient progress in Telugu to assume the supervision of the Mission, he came home. It was a most unfortunate mistake. The Executive Committee was right when it maintained that he had no adequate reason for leaving the Mission in Guntur, which needed him and which gave promise of growth under his supervision. Had he remained at his post of duty, despite every discouragement and every longing to get back to America, the Guntur Mission might not have been lost to the Ministerium of Pennsylvania, at least not so soon after its establishment.
After the Executive Committee of the Missionary Society of the Ministerium had finally decided to permit Heyer to return to America, it made overtures to The Foreign Mis- sionary Society of the General Synod, whose missionary, the Rev. Walter Gunn, was to remain in charge of the Guntur Mission, to transfer it entirely to that society. The proposal was accepted and then ratified by the Missionary Society of the Ministerium at its meeting in 1846.
The Executive Committee of The Foreign Missionary Society of the General Synod in reporting the transfer of the Guntur Mission to that society, at its meeting in New York, May 16, 1848, said, among other things: "We feel con- strained to pay a passing tribute to the Missionary Society of the Pennsylvania Synod for their devoted zeal and activity in the mission work. To that society we owe the successful estabKshment of the Mission at Guntur. To them belongs the proud distinction of having sent the first Lutheran mis- sionary from the United States; and right and proper was it that the oldest Lutheran synod in this country, the mother of us all, should have taken the lead in this noble enterprise. It was in strict unison with the spirit which characterized the founders of that venerable body in leaving their fatherland
HOW GENERAL SYNOD GAINED CONTROL OF GUNTUR 7 to establish a branch of our Lutheran Zion in the then wilder- ness of America. It was providential, whether we consider the man sent, those who sent him, the time or the section of country in which he commenced his labors."