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Bearing His Cross in India

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 14, 1909

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 86, No. 41.

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Bearing His Cross in India

By George F. Enoch

It was the sultry evening of a still more hot and sultry day. In a little chapel in the city of Poona, India,—a city in a country where Christian churches are the small places of worship, in a sad minority,—there had gathered a few missionaries of different shades of belief, with a few other Christians, about a score all told, in the weekly union prayer-meeting.
An earnest Christian from the British army, wearing the uniform of his regiment, asked permission to read a letter. That letter was short and simple, but it gives an insight into things as they are.
This soldier had given a New Testament in English to a Jain boy whom he had met in the Punjab. This Jain boy, solely from reading this Testament, became possessed of a desire to become a follower of Jesus, but for two years he had not the courage publicly to take the step. Now he wrote:—
“I am glad to let you know that your prayers and the prayers of your friends are answered. Last Wednesday I went to ——, and took an open stand for Christ. Some of my people tried to drag me away, but I got away from them. Last Sunday I was publicly baptized. My relatives came in a crowd to take me away forcibly, but the minister protected me. Then my mother, having taken down her hair, seated herself on the steps and began to weep for me, vowing that she would never again taste food until I had returned home. But O! I had learned of Jesus, and I could not give him up. I have lost my mother, my family, my friends, and all I possess, but I have Jesus. I dare not return home again, as I fear what my relatives will do. Pray for me that I may neither be kidnapped nor poisoned.”
To one of the higher castes it means everything to become a Christian in India. O how slow we are to do our part in the seed-sowing campaign among these millions! May this brief glimpse stir young people to volunteer for service. GEO. F. ENOCH.