I have told of one-that little child who is now as evil-minded as a little child can be; she is only one of so many. Let a medical missionary speak.
"A few days ago we had a little child-wife here as a patient. She was ten or eleven, I think, just a sc.r.a.p of a creature, playing with a doll, and yet degraded unmentionably in mind.... But oh, to think of the hundreds of little girls!... It makes me feel literally sick. We do what we can.... But what can we do? What a drop in the ocean it is!"
Where the dotted lines come, there was written what cannot be printed. But it had to be lived through, every bit of it, by a "sc.r.a.p of a creature of ten or eleven."
Another-these are from a friend who, even in writing a private letter, cannot say one-tenth of the thing she really means.
"A few days ago the little mother (a child of thirteen) was crying bitterly in the ward. "Why are you crying?" "Because he says I am too old for him now; he will get another wife, he says." "He" was her husband, "quite a lad," who had come to the hospital to see her." "Because he says I am too old for him now; he will get another wife, he says." "He" was her husband, "quite a lad," who had come to the hospital to see her."
The end of that story which cannot be told is being lived through this very day by that little wife of thirteen. And remember that thirteen in India means barely eleven at home.
"She was fourteen years old," they said, "but such a tiny thing, she looked about nine years old in size and development.... The little mother was so hurt, she can never be well again all her life. The husband then married again ... as the child was ruined in health...." And, as before, the dots must cover all the long-drawn-out misery of that little child who "looked about nine."
"There is an old, old man living near here, with a little wife of ten or eleven.... Our present cook"s little girl, nine years old, has lately been married to a man who already has had two wives." In each of these cases, as in each I have mentioned, marriage means marriage, not just betrothal, as so many fondly imagine. Only to-day I heard of one who died in what the nurse who attended her described as "simple agony." She had been married a week before. She was barely twelve years old.
We do not say this is universal. There are many exceptions; but we do say the workings of this custom should be exposed and not suppressed. Question our facts; we can prove them. To-day as I write it, to-day as you read it, hundreds and thousands of little wives are going through what we have described. But "described" is not the word to use-indicated, I should say, with the faintest wash of sepia where the thing meant is pitch black. faintest wash of sepia where the thing meant is pitch black.
Think of it, then-do not try to escape from the thought-English women know too little, care too little-too little by far. Think of it. Stop and think of it. If it is "trying" to think of it, and you would prefer to turn the page over, and get to something nicer to read, what must it be to live through it? what must it be to live through it? What must it be to those little girls, so little, so pitifully little, and unequal to it all? What must it be to these childish things to live on through it day by day, with, in some cases, nothing to hope for till kindly death comes and opens the door, the one dread door of escape they know, and the tortured little body dies? And someone says, "The girl is dead, take the corpse out to the burning-ground." Then they take it up, gently perhaps. But oh, the relief of remembering it! It does not matter now. Nothing matters any more. Little dead wives cannot feel. What must it be to those little girls, so little, so pitifully little, and unequal to it all? What must it be to these childish things to live on through it day by day, with, in some cases, nothing to hope for till kindly death comes and opens the door, the one dread door of escape they know, and the tortured little body dies? And someone says, "The girl is dead, take the corpse out to the burning-ground." Then they take it up, gently perhaps. But oh, the relief of remembering it! It does not matter now. Nothing matters any more. Little dead wives cannot feel.
I wonder whether it touches you? I know I cannot tell it well. But oh, one lives through it all with them!-I have stopped writing again and again, and felt I could not go on.
Mother, happy mother! When you tuck up your little girl in her cot, and feel her arms cling round your neck and her kisses on your cheek, will you think of these other little girls? Will you try to conceive what you would feel if your little girl were here? if your little girl were here?
Oh, you clasp her tight, so tight in your arms! The thought is a scorpion"s sting in your soul. You would kill her, smother her dead in your arms, before you would give her to- kill her, smother her dead in your arms, before you would give her to-that.
Turn the light down, and come away. Thank G.o.d she is safe in her little cot, she will wake up to-morrow safe. Now think for a moment steadily of those who are somebody"s little girls, just as dear to them and sweet, needing as much the tenderest care as this your own little girl.
Think of them. Try to think of them as if they were your very own. They are just like your own, in so many ways-only their future is different.
Oh, dear mothers, do you care? Do you care very much, I ask?
We pa.s.sed the temple on our way home from the Village of the Lake. The great gate was open, and the Brahmans and their friends were lounging in and out, or sitting in the porch talking and laughing together. They were talking about us as we pa.s.sed. They were quite aware of our object in coming, and were pleased that we had failed.
Government officials, English-speaking graduates, educated Hindus like our old friend the schoolmaster, all would admit in private that to take a child to the temple and "marry her" there was wrong. But very few have much desire to right the shameful wrong.
There are thousands of recognised Slaves of the G.o.ds in this Presidency. Under other names they exist all over India. There are thousands of little child-wives; fewer here than elsewhere, we know, but many everywhere. I do not for a moment suggest that all child-wives are cruelly handled, any more than I would have it thought that all little girls are available for the service of the G.o.ds. Nor would I have it supposed that we see down this h.e.l.l-crack every day. We may live for years in the country and know very little about it. The medical workers-G.o.d help them!-are those who are most frequently forced to look down, and I, not being a medical, know infinitely less of its depths than they. But this I do know, and do mean, and I mean it with an intensity I know not how to express, are cruelly handled, any more than I would have it thought that all little girls are available for the service of the G.o.ds. Nor would I have it supposed that we see down this h.e.l.l-crack every day. We may live for years in the country and know very little about it. The medical workers-G.o.d help them!-are those who are most frequently forced to look down, and I, not being a medical, know infinitely less of its depths than they. But this I do know, and do mean, and I mean it with an intensity I know not how to express, that this custom of infant marriage and child marriage, whether to G.o.ds or men, is an infamous custom; that it holds possibilities of wrong, such unutterable wrong, that descriptive words concerning it can only "skirt the abyss," and that in the name of all that is just and all that is merciful it should be swept out of the land without a day"s delay that this custom of infant marriage and child marriage, whether to G.o.ds or men, is an infamous custom; that it holds possibilities of wrong, such unutterable wrong, that descriptive words concerning it can only "skirt the abyss," and that in the name of all that is just and all that is merciful it should be swept out of the land without a day"s delay.
We look to our Indian brothers. India is so immense that a voice crying in the North is hardly heard in the South. Thank G.o.d for the one or two voices crying in the wilderness. But many voices are needed, not only one or two. Let the many voices cry! Every man with a heart and a voice to cry, should cry. Then all the cries crying over the land will force the deaf ears to hear, and force the dull brains to think and the hands of the law to act, and something at last will be done.
But "crying" is not nearly enough. We look to you, brothers of India, to do do. Get convictions upon this subject which will compel you to do do. Many can talk and many can write, and more will do both, as the years pa.s.s, but the crux is contained in the doing doing.
G.o.d alone can strengthen you for it. He who set His face as a flint, can make you steadfast and brave enough to set your faces as flints, till the bands of wickedness are loosed, and the heavy burdens are undone, and every yoke is broken, and the oppressed go free.
It will cost. It is bound to cost. Every battle of the warrior is with confused noise and garments rolled in blood. It is only sham battles that cost something less than blood. Everything worth anything costs blood costs blood. "Reproach hath broken My heart." A broken heart bleeds. Is it the reproach of the battle you fear? This fear will conquer you until you hear the voice of your G.o.d saying, "Fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be afraid of their revilings.... Who art thou that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and the son of man that shall be made as gra.s.s, and forgettest the Lord thy Maker?"
This book is meant for our comrades at home, but it may come back to India, and so we have spoken straight from our hearts to our Indian brothers here. Oh, brothers, rise, and in G.o.d"s Name fight; in His power fight till you win, for these, your own land"s little girls, who never can fight for themselves!
And now we look to you at home. Will all who pity the little wives pray for the men of India? Pray for those who are honestly striving to rid the land of this shameful curse. Pray that they may be nerved for the fight by the power of G.o.d"s right arm. Pray for all the irresolute. "A sound of battle is in the land, ... the Lord hath opened His armoury." "Cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood." Pray for resolution and the courage of conviction. It is needed. he that keepeth back his sword from blood." Pray for resolution and the courage of conviction. It is needed.
And to this end pray that the Spirit of Life may come upon our Mission Colleges, and mightily energise the Missionary Educational Movement, that Hindu students may be won to out-and-out allegiance to Christ while they are students, before they become entangled in the social mesh of Hinduism. And pray, we earnestly plead with you, that the Christian students may meet G.o.d at college, and come out strong to fight this fiend which trades in "slaves and souls of men"-and in the souls of little girls.
CHAPTER XXVI.
From a Hindu Point of View
"The Lord preserve us from innovations foreign to the true principles of the Protestant Church, and foreign to the principles of the C.M.S. Pictures, crosses, and banners, with processions, would do great harm. The Mohammedan natives would say, "Wah! you worship idols as the Hindus do, and have taziyas (processions) as well as the Mohammedans!" And our Christians would mourn over such things."
Rev. C. B. Leupolt, India.
I AM sitting in the north-west corner of the verandah of a little mission bungalow, on the outskirts of a town sixteen miles south of our Eastern headquarters. This is the town where they set fire to the schoolroom when Victory came. So far does Caste feeling fly. As you sit in the corner of this verandah you see a little temple fitted between two whitewashed pillars, roughly built and rudely decorated, but in this early morning light it looks like a picture set in a frame. It is just outside the compound, so near that you see it in all its detail of colour; the sun striking across it touches the colours and makes them beautiful. AM sitting in the north-west corner of the verandah of a little mission bungalow, on the outskirts of a town sixteen miles south of our Eastern headquarters. This is the town where they set fire to the schoolroom when Victory came. So far does Caste feeling fly. As you sit in the corner of this verandah you see a little temple fitted between two whitewashed pillars, roughly built and rudely decorated, but in this early morning light it looks like a picture set in a frame. It is just outside the compound, so near that you see it in all its detail of colour; the sun striking across it touches the colours and makes them beautiful.
There is the usual striped wall, red and white; the red is a fine terra-cotta, the colour of the sand. The central block, the shrine itself, has inlays of green, red, and blue; there is more terra-cotta in the roof, some yellow too, and white. Beyond on either side there are houses, and beyond the houses, trees and sky. yellow too, and white. Beyond on either side there are houses, and beyond the houses, trees and sky.
It is all very pretty and peaceful. Smoke is curling up in the still air from some early lighted fire out of doors; there are voices of people going and coming, softened by distance. There is the musical jingle of bullock bells here in the compound and out on the road, and there is the twitter of birds.
In front of that temple there are three altars, and in front of the altars a pillar. I can see it from where I am sitting now, rough grey stone. Upon it, there is what I thought at first was a sun-dial, and I wondered what it was doing there. Then I saw it had not a dial plate; only a strong cross-bar of wood, and the index finger, so to speak, was longer than one would expect, a sharp wooden spike. As I was wondering what it was a pa.s.ser-by explained it. It is not a sun-dial, it is an impaling instrument. On that spike they used to impale alive goats and kids and fowls as offerings to the G.o.d Siva and his two wives, the deities to whose honour the three altars stand before the little shrine. The pillar on which stands this infernal spike has three circles scored into it, sign of the three divinities.
"The impaling has stopped," say the people, greatly amused at one"s horror and distress, for at first I thought perhaps they still did it. "Now we do not impale alive; the Government has stopped it." Thank G.o.d for that! But oh, let all lovers of G.o.d"s creatures pray for and hasten the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ! Government may step in and stop the public clubbing to death of buffaloes, and the impaling of goats and fowls in sacrifice, but it cannot stop the private cruelty, and the still wider-spread indifference on the part of those who are not themselves cruel; only the coming of Christ the Compa.s.sionate can do that. sacrifice, but it cannot stop the private cruelty, and the still wider-spread indifference on the part of those who are not themselves cruel; only the coming of Christ the Compa.s.sionate can do that.
There was the sound of voices just then, as I wrote, many voices, coming nearer, shrill women"s voices, cutting through one"s thoughts, and I went out to see what was going on.
On the other side of the road, opposite our gate, there is a huge old double tree, the sacred fig tree of India, intertwined with another-a religious symbol to this symbol-loving people. Underneath is a stone platform, and on it the hideous elephant-G.o.d. On the same side is a little house. A group of women were gathered under the shade near the house, evidently waiting for something or someone. They were delighted to talk.
We spent half an hour under the tree, and they listened; but we were interrupted by some well-dressed Government officials with their coats, sashes, and badges, and one not strictly Governmental got up in a marvellous fashion, and they joined the group and monopolised the conversation. I waited, hoping they would soon go away, and I listened to what they were saying.
"Yes! she actually appeared! She was a G.o.ddess." ("A G.o.ddess! Oh!" from the women.) "She came forward, moving without walking, and she stood as a tree stands, and she stretched out her arms and blessed the people, and vanished."
A woman pointed to me. "Like her? Was she like her?"
"Like her!" and the Government official was a little contemptuous. "Did I not say she was a G.o.ddess? Is this Missie Ammal a G.o.ddess? Is she not a mere woman like yourselves, only white?"
"She also came from the bungalow," objected the woman rather feebly, feeling public opinion against her. also came from the bungalow," objected the woman rather feebly, feeling public opinion against her.
"You oyster!" said the official politely, "because a Missie Ammal comes from the bungalow, does it prove that the G.o.ddess was a Missie Ammal?" The other women agreed with him, and snubbed the ignoramus, who retired from the controversy.
The story was repeated with variations, such a mixture of the probable with the improbable, not to say impossible, that one got tangled up in it before he had got half through.
Just then an ancient Christian appeared on the scene and quavered in, in the middle of the marvel, with words to the effect that our G.o.d was the true G.o.d, and they ought to have faith in Him. It was not exactly a propos a propos of anything they were discussing, but he seemed to think it the right thing to say, and they accepted it as a customary remark, and went on with their conversation. I asked the old worthy if he knew anything about the story, and at first he denied it indignantly as savouring too much of idolatry to be connected with the bungalow, but finally admitted that once in the dim past he had heard that an Ammal in the bungalow, who was ill and disturbed by the tom-toms at night, got up and went out and tried to speak to the people. And the men, listening now to the old man, threw in a word which illumined the whole, "It was a great festival." I remembered that impaling stake, and understood it all. And in a of anything they were discussing, but he seemed to think it the right thing to say, and they accepted it as a customary remark, and went on with their conversation. I asked the old worthy if he knew anything about the story, and at first he denied it indignantly as savouring too much of idolatry to be connected with the bungalow, but finally admitted that once in the dim past he had heard that an Ammal in the bungalow, who was ill and disturbed by the tom-toms at night, got up and went out and tried to speak to the people. And the men, listening now to the old man, threw in a word which illumined the whole, "It was a great festival." I remembered that impaling stake, and understood it all. And in a flash I saw it-the poor live beast-and heard its cries. They would wring her heart as she heard them in the pauses of the tom-tom. She was ill, but she got up and struggled out, and tried to stop it, I am sure-tried, and failed. flash I saw it-the poor live beast-and heard its cries. They would wring her heart as she heard them in the pauses of the tom-tom. She was ill, but she got up and struggled out, and tried to stop it, I am sure-tried, and failed.
Seven thousand miles away these things may seem trivial. Here, with that grey stone pillar full in view, they are real.
I came back to the present. The women were still there, and more people were gathering. Something was going to happen. Then a sudden burst of tom-toms, and a banging and clanging of all manner of noise-producers, and then a bullock coach drove up, a great gilded thing. It stopped in front of the little house; someone got out; the people shouted, "Guru! Great Guru! Lord Guru!" with wild enthusiasm.
The Guru was not poor. He had two carts laden with luggage-one item, a green parrot in a cage. Close to the cage a small boy was thundering away on a tom-tom, but it did not disturb the parrot. The people seemed to think this display of wealth demanded an apology. "It is not his, it belongs to his followers; he, being what he is, requires none of these things," they said.
I had to go then, and we started soon afterwards on our day"s round, and I do not know what happened next; but I had never had the chance of a talk with a celebrity of this description, and in the evening, on my homeward way, I stopped before the little house and asked if I might see him, the famous Guru of one of the greatest of South Indian Castes.
The Government officials of the morning were there, but the officialism was gone. No coats and sashes and badges now, only the simple national dress, a scarf of white muslin. The one who in the morning had been an ill.u.s.tration of the possible effect of the mixture of East and West, stood in a dignity he had not then, a fine manly form.
The door was open, and they were sentry, for their Guru was resting, they said. "Then he is very human, just like yourselves?" But the strong, sensible faces looked almost frightened at the words. "Hush," they answered all in a breath, "no such thoughts may be even thought here. He is not just like us." And as if to divert us from the expression of such sentiments, they moved a little from the door, and said, "You may look, if you do not speak," and knowing such looks are not often allowed, I looked with interest, and saw all there was to see.
The Guru was in the far corner resting; a rich purple silk, with gold interwoven in borders and bands, was flung over his ascetic"s dress. At the far end, too, was a sort of altar, covered with red cloth, and on it were numerous bra.s.s candlesticks and vessels, and on a little shelf above, a row of little divinities, some bra.s.s ornaments, and flowers.
To the left of this altar there was a high-backed chair covered by a deer skin; there were pictures of G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses round the room, especially near the altar, and there were the usual censers, rosaries, and musical instruments, and there was the parrot.
The Government official pointed in, and said, with an air of pride in the whole, and a certainty of sympathy too, "There, you see how closely it resembles your churches; there is not so much difference between you and us after all!" air of pride in the whole, and a certainty of sympathy too, "There, you see how closely it resembles your churches; there is not so much difference between you and us after all!"
Not so much difference! There is a very great difference, I told him; and I asked him where he had seen a Christian church like this. He mentioned two. One was a Roman Catholic chapel, the other an English church.
What could I say? They bear our name; how could he understand the divisions that rend us asunder?-Romanists, Ritualists, and Protestants-are we not all called Christians?
I looked again, and I could not help being struck with the resemblance. The altar with its bra.s.ses and flowers and candlesticks, and the little shelf above; the pictures on the walls; the chair, so like a Bishop"s chair of state; the whole air of the place heavy with incense, was redolent of Rome.
He went on to explain, while I stood there ashamed. "Look, have you not got that?" and he pointed to the altar-like erection, with the red cloth and the flowers.
"We have nothing of the sort in our church. Come and see; we have only a table," I said; but he laughed and declared he had seen it in other churches, and it was just like ours, "only yours has a cross above it, and ours has images; but you bow to your cross, so it must represent a divinity," and, without waiting for any reply, he pointed next to the pictures.
"They are very like yours, I think," he said, only yours show your G.o.d on a cross, stretched out and dying-so"-And he stretched out his arms, and dropped his head, and said something which cannot be translated; and I could not look or listen, but broke in earnestly: "Indeed, we have no such pictures-at least we here have not; but even if some show such a picture, do they ever call it a picture of G.o.d? They only say it is a picture of"-But he interrupted impatiently: "Do not I know what they say?" And then, with a touch of scorn at what he thought was an empty excuse on my part, he added, "We also say the same" (which is true; no intelligent Hindu admits that he worships idols or pictures; he worships what these things represent). "Your people show your symbols," he continued, in the tone of one who is sure of his ground, "exactly as we show ours. I have seen your G.o.d on a great sheet at night; it was shown by means of a magic lamp; and sometimes you make it of wood or bra.s.s, as we make ours of stone. The name may change and the manner of making, but the thing"s essence is the same."
"The Mohammedans do not show their G.o.d"s symbol; but we do, and so do the Christians. Therefore between us and the Christians there is more in common than between the Mohammedans and us." This was another Hindu"s contribution to the argument.
The chair now served as a text. "When your Bishop comes round your churches, does he not sit in a chair like that, himself apart from the people? And in like manner our Guru sits. There is much similarity. Also do not your Christians stand"-and he imitated the peculiarly deferential att.i.tude adopted on such occasions by some-"just in the fashion that we stand? And do not your people feel themselves blessed by the presence of the Great? Oh, there is much similarity!" not your people feel themselves blessed by the presence of the Great? Oh, there is much similarity!"
I explained that all this, though foolish, was not intended for more than respect, and our Bishops did not desire it; at which he smiled. Then he went on to expatiate upon what he had seen in some of our churches (probably while on duty as Government servant): the display, as it seemed to him, so like this; the pomp, as he thought it, so fine, like this; the bowing and prostrating, and even on the part of those who did not do these things, the evident partic.i.p.ation in the whole grand show. And the other men, who apparently had looked in through the open windows and doors, agreed with him.
He is not the first who has been stumbled in the same way; and I remembered, as he talked, what a Mohammedan woman said to a friend of mine about one of our English churches, seen through her husband"s eyes. "You have idols in your church," she said, "to which you bow in worship." She referred to the things on or above the Communion table. My friend explained the things were not idols. "Then why do your people bow to them?" Was there nothing in the question?
Often we wonder whether the rapid but insidious increase of ritual in India is understood at home. In England it is bad enough, but in a heathen and Mohammedan land it is, if possible, worse; and the worst is, the spirit of it, or the spirit of tolerance toward it, which is on the increase even in missionary circles. Some of our Tamil people attend the English service in these "advanced" churches after their own service is over, and thus become familiarised with and gradually acclimatised to an ecclesiastical atmosphere foreign to them as members of a Protestant Society. to an ecclesiastical atmosphere foreign to them as members of a Protestant Society.
I remember spending a Sunday afternoon with a worthy pastor and his wife, stationed in the place where the church is in which the "idols are worshipped" according to the Mohammedans. When the bell rang for evening service he began to shuffle rather as if he wanted me to go. But he was too polite to say so, and the reason never struck me till his son came in with an English Bible and Prayer-Book. The old man put up his hand to his mouth in the apologetic manner of the Tamils. "We do not notice the foolish parts of the service. We like to hear the English. For the sake of the English we go."
"He did not turn to the East, but he did not keep quite straight; he just half turned." This from a pastor"s wife, about one whom she had been observing during an ordination ceremony in the English cathedral. "He just half turned." It describes the nebulous att.i.tude of mind of many a one to-day. India has not our historical background. It has no Foxe"s Book of Martyrs Foxe"s Book of Martyrs yet. Perhaps that is why its people are so indifferent upon points which seem of importance to us. They have not had to fight for their freedom, in the sense at least our forefathers fought; there is no Puritan blood in their veins; and so they are willing to follow the lead of almost anyone, provided that lead is given steadily and persistently; which surely should make those in authority careful as to those in whose hands that lead is placed. yet. Perhaps that is why its people are so indifferent upon points which seem of importance to us. They have not had to fight for their freedom, in the sense at least our forefathers fought; there is no Puritan blood in their veins; and so they are willing to follow the lead of almost anyone, provided that lead is given steadily and persistently; which surely should make those in authority careful as to those in whose hands that lead is placed.
But the natural instinct of the converted idolater is dead against complexity in worship, and for simplicity. He does not want something as like his own old religion as possible, but as different as possible from it; and so we have good building material ready to hand, and a foundation ready laid. "But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon." He does not want something as like his own old religion as possible, but as different as possible from it; and so we have good building material ready to hand, and a foundation ready laid. "But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon."
I hope this does not sound unkind. We give those who hold different views full credit for sincerity, and a right to their own opinions; but convictions are convictions, and, without judging others who differ, these are ours, and we want those at home who are with us in these things to unite to help to stem the tide that has already risen in India far higher than perhaps they know. Brave men are needed, men with a fuller development of spiritual vertebrae than is common in these easy-going days, and we need such men in our Native Church. G.o.d create them; they are not the product of theological colleges. And may G.o.d save His Missions in India from wasting His time, and money, and men, on the cultivation of what may evolve into something of no more use to creation than a new genus of jelly-fish.
The Government official and his friends were still talking among themselves: "Do we not know what the Christians do? Have we not ears? Have we not eyes? They do it in their way, we do it in ours. The thing itself is really the same. Yes, their religion is just like ours."
They could not see the vital difference between even the most vitiated forms of Christianity and their own Hinduism; there were so many resemblances, and these filled their mental vision at the moment. One could hardly wonder they could not.
They turned to me again, and with all the vigour of language at my command I told them that neither we nor those with us ever went to any church where we had reason to think there would be an exhibition of ecclesiastical paraphernalia. We did not believe it was in accordance with the simplicity of the Gospel; and I told them how simple the Truth really was, but they would not believe me. Those sights they had seen had struck them much as they struck the convert who described the Confirmation service thus: "We went up and knelt down before a stick" (the Bishop"s pastoral staff). They had observed the immense attention paid to all these sacred trifles, and naturally they appeared to them as essential to the whole; part of it, nearly all of it, in fact; and even where the service was in the vernacular, their attention had been entirely diverted from the thing heard by the things seen.
Then I thought of the description of a primitive Christianity service as given in 1 Corinthians. There the idea evidently was that if an outsider came in, or looked in, as Hindus and Mohammedans so often look in here, he should understand what was going on; and being convicted of his sin and need, should be "convinced"; "and so, falling down on his face, he will worship G.o.d, and report that G.o.d is in you of a truth." Compare the effect produced upon the minds of these Hindu men by what they saw of our services, with the effect intended to be produced by the Holy Ghost. Can we say we have improved upon His pattern?
Oh for a return to the simplicity and power of the Gospel of Christ! Then we should not roll stumbling-blocks like these in our Indian brother"s way. Oh for a return to the days of the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles, to obscurity, and poverty, and suffering, and shame, and the utter absence of all earthly glory, and the winning of souls of a different make to the type thought sufficiently spiritual now! Oh for more of the signs of Apostleship-scars, and the cross-the real cross-the reproach of Christ the Crucified,-no mitre here, but there the crown! Gospel of Christ! Then we should not roll stumbling-blocks like these in our Indian brother"s way. Oh for a return to the days of the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles, to obscurity, and poverty, and suffering, and shame, and the utter absence of all earthly glory, and the winning of souls of a different make to the type thought sufficiently spiritual now! Oh for more of the signs of Apostleship-scars, and the cross-the real cross-the reproach of Christ the Crucified,-no mitre here, but there the crown!
CHAPTER XXVII.
Though ye know Him not "I have known cases of young ministers dissuaded from facing the missionary call by those who posed as friends of Foreign Missions, and yet presumed to argue: "Your spiritual power and intellectual attainments are needed by the Church at home; they would be wasted in the Foreign Field." "Spiritual power wasted" in a land like India! Where is it so sorely needed as in a continent where Satan has constructed his strongest fortresses and displayed the choicest masterpieces of his skill? "Intellectual ability wasted" among a people whose scholars smile inwardly at the ignorance of the average Western! Brothers, if G.o.d is calling you if G.o.d is calling you, be not deterred by flimsy subterfuges such as these. You will need the power of G.o.d the Holy Ghost to make you an efficient missionary. You will find your reputation for scholarship put to the severest test in India. Here is ample scope alike for men of approved spiritual power and for intellectual giants. And so I repeat, if G.o.d is calling you if G.o.d is calling you, buckle on your sword, come to the fight, and win your spurs among the cultured sons of India."
Rev. T. Walker, India.
THE sensation you experience is curious when you rise from the study of Sir Monier William"s Brahmanism and Hinduism Brahmanism and Hinduism and go out to your work, and meet in that work someone who seems to be quoting that same book, not in paragraphs only, but in pages. He is talking Tamil, and the book is written in English; that is all the difference. He was standing by the wayside when I saw him: we got into conversation. and go out to your work, and meet in that work someone who seems to be quoting that same book, not in paragraphs only, but in pages. He is talking Tamil, and the book is written in English; that is all the difference. He was standing by the wayside when I saw him: we got into conversation.
At first he reminded me of a sea anemone, with all its tentacles drawn inside, but gradually one by one they came out, and I saw what he really was; and I think the great Christian scholar, who laboured so hard to understand and translate into words the intricacies and mysteries of Indian thought, would have felt a little repaid had he known how his work would help in the practical business of a missionary"s life. Part of our business is to meet the mind with which we are dealing half-way with quick comprehension. It is in this Sir Monier Williams helps.
When once this man felt himself understood, his whole att.i.tude changed. At first, expecting, I suppose, that he was being mistaken for "an ignorant heathen" and worshipper of stocks and stones, he hardly took the trouble to do more than answer, as he thought, a fool according to his folly. The tentacles were all in in then. then.
But that pa.s.sed soon, and he pointed to the shed behind him, where two or three life-size idol horses stood and said how childish he knew it was, foolish and vain. But then, what else could be done? Idols are not objects of worship, and never were intended so to be; their only use is to help the uninitiated to worship Something. If nothing were shown them, they would worship nothing; and a non-worshipping human being is an animal, not a man.
He went on to answer the objections to this means of quickening intelligent worship by explaining how, in higher and purer ways, the thinkers of Hinduism had tried to make the unthinking think. "Look at our temples," he said. "There is a central shrine, with only one light in it. The darkness of the shrine symbolises the darkness of the world, of life and death and being. For life is a darkness, a whirlpool of dark waters. We stand on its edge, but we do not understand it. It is dark, but light there must be; one great light. So we show this certainty by the symbol of the one light in the shrine, in the very heart of our temples." temples," he said. "There is a central shrine, with only one light in it. The darkness of the shrine symbolises the darkness of the world, of life and death and being. For life is a darkness, a whirlpool of dark waters. We stand on its edge, but we do not understand it. It is dark, but light there must be; one great light. So we show this certainty by the symbol of the one light in the shrine, in the very heart of our temples."
This led on to quotations from his own books, questioning the validity of such lights, which he finished the moment one began them, and this again led to our Lord"s words,-how strong they sounded, and how direct-"I am the Light of the World." But he could not accept them in their simplicity, and here it was that the book I had been reading came in so helpfully. He spoke rapidly and eagerly, and such a mixture of Sanscrit and Tamil that if I had not had the clue I am not sure I could have followed him, and to have misunderstood him then might have driven all the tentacles in, and made it harder for the next one whom the Spirit may send to win his confidence.
He told me that, after much study of many religions, he held the eternal existence of one, Brahma. The human spirit, he said, is not really distinct from the Divine Spirit, but identical with it; the apparent distinction arises from our illusory view of things: there is absolutely no distinction in spirit. Mind is distinct, he admitted, and body is distinct, but spirit is identical; so that, "in a definitely defined sense, I am G.o.d, G.o.d is I. The so-called two are one, in all essentials of being." And he touched himself and said, "I am Brahma. I myself, my real I, am G.o.d." touched himself and said, "I am Brahma. I myself, my real I, am G.o.d."
It sounds terribly irreverent, but he did not for a moment mean it so. Go back to Gen. ii. 7, and try to define the meaning of the words, "the breath of life," and you will, if you think enough, find yourself in a position to understand how the Hindu, without revelation, ends as he does in delusion.
But, intertwined with this central fibre of his faith, there were strands of a strange philosophy; he held strongly the doctrine of Illusion, by which the one impersonal Spirit, "in the illusion which overspreads it, is to the external world what yarn is to cloth, what milk is to curds, what clay is to a jar, but only in that illusion," that is, "he is not the actual material cause of the world, as clay of a jar, but the illusory material cause, as a rope might be of a snake"; and the spirit of man "is that Spirit, personalised and limited by the power of illusion; and the life of every living spirit is nothing but an infinitesimal arc of the one endless circle of infinite existence."