p. 10 | The Drunken Catechist by Mary E. Comstock

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Jan 6, 1881

The Drunken Catechist

By Mary E. Comstock

yet you are not willing to give up this one little thing for Christ.'

"I saw I had no power; they all voted me a fanatic on that subject. Oh, how is Christ wounded in the house of his friends!

"I felt it my duty to tell. Dr. H. of the Scotch kirk all about it. He was deeply grieved; he had always placed such confidence in the catechist. He decided to wait and see if my remonstrance had any effect, and desired me to report to him at once if I found the man in that state again, as then of course he must dismiss him, for a drunkard could be neither a preacher nor a teacher.

"A few nights after, I was awakened between twelve and one by the most frightful screams and tumult, partly within and partly without the house. I threw on my dressing gown and slippers, and rushed down. There was our Christian Baboo, our catechist, furiously drunk—mad with intoxication—fighting with the servants. He had been out it seems to the servants' room dancing around with a large carving-knife. His wife, with her babe, had rushed for safety into the children's dormitory, and it was the shrieks of the frightened children and his efforts to break open the door that had aroused me. My heart sank within me, but as soon as the infuriated man saw me he marched off to the other end of the garden. I went down after him, followed by two or three of the servants (one I had sent to call a policeman, but as usual they preferred to keep out of harm's way, and it was not until all danger was over that one appeared). I went to our teacher and catechist. He was dancing around like a maniac, brandishing the knife, his eyes glaring furiously. I demanded that he should give me that knife. They are all afraid of an European no matter whether a lady or gentleman, when a tone of authority is used. I told him it was my knife, and asked him how he dare steal it. The servants stood at a little distance trembling with apprehension. They afterward said they were dreadfully afraid he would kill me. At the time I had not a bit of fear, though in just thinking it over afterward I was very much frightened. When I had spoken to him he lowered the knife. He was a tall man, over six feet high. Then he looked at me with a silly ridiculous leer, and demanded who I was. I spoke very angrily, told him not to make such a fool of himself, but to give me my knife instantly. He looked at me very impudently for a moment, then suddenly, with an attempt at the most graceful politeness, handed me the knife, which I instantly gave to one of the servants to lock away safe. The Baboo then began what you might call a wild Indian dance, whooping and yelling, like the veriest savage. We were a long way off from any European dwelling, and there was no one I could sent for. I waited quietly until his savage dance was over. It seemed as though it would never stop, but as soon as he paused for an instant I went right up to him and caught hold of his arm, and in the most authoritative tone I could command, ordered him immediately to his room. Again he looked at me with a half-daring half-subdued manner, and shouted: 'Who are you?'

"'One whom it would be better for you to obey, instantly,' I said, and urged him toward his room, the servants following close after me.

"We at length got him into his room, and after we had well barred and bolted him in, a policeman made his appearance.

"Think of such a spectacle as that witnessed by those heathen servants and the children whom we were trying to train to be Christians. And this man a professed Christian teacher, a catechist, one who insisted that he did nothing more than every Christian man or minister did, but that the effect was simply different in degree; that he did not take as much as they did, only his head was not quite so strong as theirs, and that very likely outward effects were marked with them occasionally only that there were no witnesses.

"English Christians, so far as my observation has extended, universally feel that they must drink. There was one true, noble man, Mr. Robert Sest Monief, all honor to him, who had the courage to bear the scoffs and jeers of those who called him a fanatic, because he believed it a sin to set such an example to those poor natives. I am thankful to say that few, very few, if any of our American missionaries ever touch a drop of wine in that land except as medicine.

"I was invited," said Miss Brittan, in conclusion, "just three months before I last left Calcutta

to a little dinner party. There were seven gentlemen present; six of them were either English clergyman or missionaries, and at each person's side were set five glasses. The largest one was used for beer or claret: the others for port, sherry, champagne and masasihino, and every glass was used by each person present except myself; and when it was seen that I took nothing but water, a clergyman said to me, with a supercilious smile: 'O, that is one of your American absurdities. I should have thought you would have gotten over it by this time!'

"This is the moderate drinking indulged in by professing Christians that these poor heathen witness, for there were eight or ten servants around the table. I wish that advocates of moderate drinking could have witnessed its influence as an example as I did that night in its effects upon that poor, wretched preacher of the gospel. The result was he had to be degraded from his office as a preacher, he lost his place as a teacher, and soon died an awful death of delirium tremens; while the head of that church, the minister who had to degrade him from his office, and whose example he pleaded as an excuse, still continues his moderate drinking. The Hindoos, you know, had a proverb before the mutiny, that 'If every Englishman should leave India there would be nothing to show they had ever been there but piles of empty bottles.'"

After the conclusion of Miss Brittan's recital there was a pause in the circle, which was composed of Christian workers in different departments of labor. The silence was broken by the thoughtful, emphatic inquiry from one of the number: "Isn't the real battle for foreign missions as well as home mission work to be fought by the two great Christian nations, America and England, right at their own thresholds in crushing out this evil of intemperance?"—Mary E. Comstock, in Arthur's Home Magazine.