p. 9 | India's Gibraltar by A. H. Williams

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 21, 1916

India's Gibraltar

By A. H. Williams

A. H. WILLIAMS

“While Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.” It was not because Paul found the Athenians waiting with open arms to receive him, that they might hear from him the gospel of Christ, that his “spirit was stirred in him,” for the majority derided him; but it was because he found human beings, those for whom he knew the Son of God had sacrificed his precious life, bowing down to wood and stone, and worshiping the creatures of their own hands.

Here in India we find men as deeply sunk in idolatry as were the Athenians of Paul’s day. For ages past the masses of India have had held up before them ideals which, measured against the pure standards of Christianity, are scarcely worthy of comparison. Surely if the sights at Athens stirred Paul’s heart, we in our day should be aroused to action by the appalling darkness into which the Orient has sunk. Think of the millions bowing to idols representing gods whose moral attributes would almost shock a Nero; of the thousands of young girls who are dedicated to the temple, that the lusts of a degraded priesthood may be satisfied, and who later are turned adrift upon the world to lead a life of shame. Think of the Hindu widows condemned to a life approaching slavery, because the gods in their anger have smitten down their husbands. Mohammedanism—does the thought of it not arouse our hearts to action? and Islamism, with its false ideals, its empty formalism, its hideous heaven, its degraded womanhood—do we not hear its challenge?

Too often we think of heathenism as declining and ready to give place to Christianity; but Hinduism and Mohammedanism have even a stronger hold on the people than ever in the past, for the reform movements from within these religions tend but to their upbuilding.

The gospel of Christ is as unwelcome to the heathen of India as it was to the heathen whom Paul encountered. Yet we must not cease from proclaiming it, for Christ has commanded us to go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in. And who, having tasted for himself and learned that the Lord is good, is not stirred to break to these heathen the bread of life? “He which converteth the sinner from the error of his way, shall save a soul from death.”

The missionaries in India, in China, in Africa, and in the islands of the seas need your money, your sons, and your daughters; but especially do they need your prayers, that their courage may not falter. Surrounded day by day by the very grossest ignorance, by multitudes who know not God, our spirits often weary when we see the hardness of the people’s hearts. So much effort and yet so little progress! If it is true anywhere, it is true in India, that converts must be won “one by one.” Yet honest hearts have heard, and others yet will hear; for “my word,” saith the Lord, “shall not return unto me void, but . . . it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”

We also need your prayers, that right plans may be laid and right methods followed. This work in which we are engaged is not a fight “against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world;” for in the false religions of the East we find crystallized the wisdom of the adversary, accumulated through centuries of experience. Unless, therefore, the work is carried on under divine direction, unless we continually submit our ways to the wisdom of him who sent us, we can look for but little progress.

We are grateful for the help received in the past, and we thank our heavenly Father for the fruit he has given us; but we realize that much remains to be done. Many languages are as yet untouched, many millions are yet unwarned, many areas are yet unentered. We need more men, we need more money; but especially we need more prayers in our behalf. Not all can come and help us; some may not be able to give much financial help; but all have equal access to the throne of grace. Do not neglect this opportunity of helping.