p. 17 | A Month’s Tour in South India by F. O. Raymond

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 4, 1912

A Month’s Tour in South India

By F. O. Raymond

DURING the last month, I have traveled nearly one thousand miles, describing three fourths of a circle with a radius of two hundred miles about Bangalore City. On this trip I have sold our literature to the value of 455 rupees [$150] in fourteen towns, seven of them being district headquarters. Forty-five per cent, or fully 200 rupees, has been for our religious literature, Oriental Watchman taking the lead. Much of the country is very poor, with few Europeans. I have worked hard, and many times have been cheered by God’s manifest blessing along the way.

I have come in contact with much of the faithful work of former laborers, and many times have been directed in quite remarkable ways to those ready for our message-filled literature. I must praise God, too, for his keeping power,

for the way he has guided me in judgment, and the many timely favors he has given me at the hand of strangers, many of whom we call “heathen natives.”

I will mention a few instances of the month. I am cycling along a poor street when suddenly my attention is attracted to an unpretentious house. I go in, find a customs officer, and take his subscription for Oriental Watchman. Again, a dog runs out, so I have to dismount and speak to the man of the house, whom I find to be a prominent, educated Christian, the only one on the street. I secure his order for Oriental Watchman, and pass on. In another town, I can spend but one day, and do not wish to miss any of God’s true children there. At once a native man steps up, inquires my business, and is delighted to find me a Christian missionary like himself. So, for Christ’s sake he shows me around to some I should otherwise have passed by, and the town is finished just in time for the train. At another time I miss the one I am seeking, am compelled to go to another place, and there meet an earnest Christian woman, whom I should have otherwise missed. I add “Christ’s Object Lessons” to her splendid library, and go away with the name of one of high social standing and influence. In another town I find a family unable to subscribe, but treasuring a year’s Oriental Watchman and Herald of Health sent them by one whom I met last year on the east coast.

These are a few of the things which show how the Lord is working throughout this vast empire. These are the things which inspire greater confidence in the message, and encourage the messenger to press on while the day lasts.

I am now at Bellari, two hundred miles north of Bangalore, ready to enter Mysore from the north. I still desire an interest in the prayers of God’s people.

F. O. RAYMOND.