First-Fruits in West India by GEO. F. ENOCH

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 22, 1913

First-Fruits in West India

By GEO. F. ENOCH

MARCH 29 and 30 were red-letter days for the work in west India. After about five years of labor in virgin territory it was our privilege to see the first steps taken toward organizing a church in this part of the vineyard.

Elder and Mrs. J. L. Shaw stopped on their way to the General Conference. After a sermon Sabbath morning on church organization, seventeen Europeans and Eurasians signed the church covenant as the first step toward the organization of a Seventh-day Adventist church in Lonavla. After this service thirty believers gathered round the table of the Lord in the communion service, and he graced our assembly with the sense of his presence that brought joy to our hearts. One of these new members has been trained as a canvasser, and has had very good success in the city of Bombay with “Heralds of the Morning.”

The next day the same scene was repeated at our mission station at Kalyan. Fourteen native brethren and sisters signed the covenant, and we had our first communion service with the Marathi people. The ordinance of humility was quite new to them, but the Lord drew very near and all our hearts were melted in tender love one for another.

We feel now that we have crossed our Rubicon in west India, and look forward into the future with hope. We shall proceed with the instruction necessary and organize these two churches, one for the English people at Lonavla and the other for the Marathi people at Kalyan, before the next quarterly meeting.

One of the sisters baptized is an Indian lady who has done service for ten years in the court of one of the ruling princes of India. She now goes to be the companion to the wife of the heir apparent of the throne of Kashmir. She expects to take up the circulation of our good books and other literature among the ruling princes of India, a work for which she is eminently fitted, and for the prosecution of which she will have the most unique opportunities.

Both our school work and our medical work in the two mission stations are progressing favorably. We have about one hundred fifty children in the schools, and Mrs. Wood had nearly nine hundred patients at her dispensary last month, which was only the third month of its operation. She took in about twenty-five dollars in fees. We are looking for definite fruit from our effort this year.

One very encouraging feature of our work is that it is the higher castes that are putting their children in our mission schools and inquiring into Christianity. Many of the missions operating in the Marathi country have been unfortunate in filling up with the low-caste people to such an extent that the mold that has been put on their work has made it hard for them to do adequate work for the high-caste people. We by no means pass by the low caste, but the Lord is opening the hearts of the higher castes, and if he will give us our first converts from them it will put a stamp on the work that will be for its future good. A young Brahman is now studying with me here in Lonavla, and there are several bright young Brahmans who we hope will soon take their stand with us.

The workers in west India are all of good courage, and are unitedly pressing the battle to the gates. We ask an interest in your prayers.

GEO. F. ENOCH.