p. 16 | An Echo From the India Conference

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Mar 16, 1905

An Echo From the India Conference

By H. H. Votaw; Mrs. H. H. Votaw

ALL who have accepted this truth will remember the first feeling that animated them, the desire to share these good things with others. It is with a feeling very akin to this that we are now writing.

During our blessed week of prayer we felt that God was richly blessing us; and truly we were refreshed; but since the conference has been in session, we have seen that the best of the feast was reserved until the last.

What to us has seemed the most choice of all the good things has been the reports from the laborers. Words can give no adequate conception of the impression made by these reports, for words seem lifeless things; but we pray that the same Spirit which was so manifestly present in the meetings may use these words to impress upon every heart the burden of the work.

Brother W. A. Barlow reported the work being done among the Santals, one of the peoples of the plains country. In the first part of his talk he thanked the Lord with great fervency for having shown him this message. I never saw a man who seemed to appreciate the distinctive features of our faith more. Brother I. D. Richardson, of Ohio, was the instrument used by God to reach Brother Barlow. As I heard him even bless the day on which the light came to him, I thought, “If Brother Richardson could but hear this, he would ever look with pleasure upon the time spent in India.”

Brother Barlow was for ten years in the employ of the English Church. For the last five years he has been seeking to give the everlasting gospel as enjoined in Rev. 14: 6-12.

When he began his work at Simultala, he had no money and no land. For the first three months he lived in a tent. Sometimes during storms this would be blown down; but God always protected the lives of the family. After a time he built a hut. This was covered with thatched roof, and had a mud floor; but, said he, “It was a holy place to me, because God was there.” He was stricken with Asiatic cholera, but his life was precious, and he was spared.

Seeing that “the people were so many,” he started a school to educate helpers. For months he taught two boys. Now he has twenty. On Sabbath he takes the boys and goes among the villages. The people are fond of singing, so he has taught gospel songs to the students. In every village there is a platform where all disputes are settled, where marriages are celebrated, etc. After the singing, one of the boys reads, and gives a testimony of God's love. Some of the boys have come a distance of sixty miles to find a school. They are so anxious to learn that they walk long distances.

God has so blessed that now there is a goodly tract of land under cultivation. Brother Barlow has one line of fruit-trees five miles long. You see this is a large number.

There is especial need of a girls' school at Simultala. To teach the boys is not sufficient; for if they should become Christians and should marry heathen wives, their work would be much handicapped, or perhaps no woman could be found who would marry them at all. One boy has met this experience. He was engaged, but the engagement has been broken. The divorce ceremony, as the engagement-breaking is termed, is interesting. The parties come to the public platform, and are asked a number of times if they desire to disannul their pledges. If they answer in the affirmative, a leaf of the banyan tree, which is sacred among the Santals, is torn in two, and a piece given each party.

Brother Barlow brought one of the boys down to the meeting, and we were impressed by seeing this boy sit right down at his feet; nor could he be persuaded to sit upon a chair. Whenever Brother Barlow arose, he did so, too. These two sang a song in the Santal language. Never in our lives were we so touched before. This boy stood in native simplicity, and sang, “When he cometh, when he cometh to make up his jewels.” He sang with evident pleasure, and as the chorus was sung, “Like the stars of the morning his bright crown adorning,” etc., many a tear of joy was shed. O brethren and sisters, if you could but see! If the field as it is could but be portrayed; if the darkness could be felt at home as here, more would come. Pray for us.

H. H. VOTAW.

MRS. H. H. VOTAW.