Tinnevelly, South India
By J. S. JAMES
AFTER a residence of fourteen months of ministerial labor and Tamil language study in Bangalore, we bound off our work there and are now located among the Tamil Sabbath-keepers of the Tinnevelly district. Leaving Bangalore the evening of March 15, we arrived at Tinnevelly Bridge station, after a journey of two days and nights. This is the nearest railway station to the neighborhood of our future labors. The rest of the journey is made by bullock carts, twenty-three miles to the southeast. We were met at the station by friends who had previously arranged for bullock carts to convey ourselves and luggage out to our future home. After a few hours’ rest at the home of a friend in Palamcottah, the carts were made ready for the drive which was to occupy the entire night. The first cart carried our luggage. The second was prepared for my two boys and the man who came to meet us, and the third cart carried Mrs. James and myself. These carts were about six feet long, and three feet wide, covered with palmyra-leaf mats, and drawn by two bullocks. By using a good supply of hay and bedding we managed to make ourselves comfortable so we could sleep a part of the night. A bullock-cart ride in India is always more interesting on paper than in reality. The same is true with a few other things. About two miles of it over the average Indian road is sufficient to wear off all the novelty that should chance to go with it. Bullock-cart rides never fail of mention in the recollections of Indian missionaries. All night long one hears the shouts and cries of the driver as he half pushes and half urges his lazy bullocks along. While he usually carries a whip, its use is a waste of energy. Tail-twisting is the favorite method of persuasion; the driver sits on the cart-tongue conveniently near this appendage, where it can be grasped at a moment’s notice. We arrived at the end of our journey the next morning at half-past seven, and were greeted in the usual manner accorded to missionaries. Some two weeks before this, I made a visit to this place and endeavored to secure a dwelling-house in some of the near-by villages. These houses had been vacant for some time and were owned by members of the Anglican Church. As soon as it became known that we were in search of a house, the lord bishop of the district issued strict orders that any member of his church who rented us houses or in any way assisted us in our efforts to start mission work in their territory would be expelled from the church at once. This served to close these places against us, but other means were provided. God’s opportunity had come. Seeing there was no other opening for us nearer than twenty-three miles, and greatly desiring our immediate presence among them, the Sabbath-keepers heartily consented to vacate their school building and fix it up for our habitation as best they could until a suitable dwelling-house can be erected. This building is located in the heart of the two combined villages. It is closely hemmed in on every side by native mud huts and foul-smelling stables. The building itself is constructed of sun-dried brick, surrounded on all sides by a five-foot veranda and covered with a tile roof. Our greatest inconvenience is lack of room for exercise and fresh air. We have little or no privacy unless we close the doors and windows against the curious crowd who are constantly peering in at every opening. We can not blame them, for they are ignorant, and our ways of living and the furniture of our home appear just as strange to them as theirs do to us at first sight. We are the first white people who have ever lived in the village, and our presence excites a great deal of interest. Notwithstanding the fact we are over eight hundred miles from our nearest worker, and fifteen hundred miles from our field headquarters, surrounded on every side with black faces and a language we do not yet understand, we feel no less secure than when we were comfortably situated in our home in Minnesota. We feel that we are among a class of people who are as truly our friends as were those of former associations. We have every evidence of this in the way they go about to seek our comfort and convenience. For all this we are extremely thankful to God, and we feel greatly encouraged in our efforts to prepare ourselves so that we may be able to acquaint them with the joy and riches to be found in the truths we have for all nations. That we may have the wisdom, patience, and understanding to do this in the right way, is our constant prayer. In a number of ways their doctrines resemble a few principles which we hold, but they are a long way from being Seventh-day Adventists. Their church polity is a strange mixture of Hinduism, Judaism, and Christianity. Many things connected with their domestic life and church ritual are identical with those of the Brahmins. Their conception of the laws and customs of Judaism allows of all the evils of the caste system; the laws of pollution and defilement contained in the Judaic system are cited as support for such things. These things are the idols of the unregenerate heart which delights itself in a religion of self-righteousness, and revels in an abundance of ceremonies and forms. They have scrupulously held to these things for fifty years, and it is too much to expect them to leave it without a struggle. There are, however, a number of the leaders who are anxious for a reform and are working to effect it. I hope to be able to work through them for the benefit of others. While I am writing these lines (April 7, which they reckon as the beginning of the passover week) the trumpets are blowing, calling the people to assemble for a service which lost its significance in the death of Christ on the cross two thousand years ago. We earnestly hope that ere another year rolls around, these people will be supplied with the truth in their own language, and will not desire to carry forward these meaningless forms any longer. Quite frequently different leaders of the congregation come to my house, and together we study the Bible on these points. I am happy to see that they take kindly to my explanations of controverted points. I avoid giving them too much at a time. The method described by Isaiah is best. Isa. 28: 10-11. Ever since they left their founder in 1883, they have been much in the same condition as Israel in the time of Asa,—“without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law” See 2 Chron. 15: 3-5. As sheep without a shepherd they have wandered about in the darkness of surrounding idolatry, with no one to instruct them. Like the Ethiopian whom Philip met on his way to Gaza from Jerusalem, they read and reverence the Scriptures, but how can they understand except some man should guide them? They are a people belonging to a caste that takes pride in their generosity. They have hearts of sympathy and tenderness that respond quickly to every sincere effort to help them. When they see that we love them, and are willing to sacrifice for their sakes, there is nothing they will not do in return to show their appreciation. Their needs, as well as our own, should have a daily remembrance in your prayers. Mukkupiri, Nazareth, P. O.