MRS. E. M. MELEENKrishnarajapuram, Bangalore District
Here in India the newspapers are full every day of “Noncoöperation,” “Nationalism,” “Civil Disobedience,” “Dominion Status,” “Home Rule,” foreign-cloth-shop picketing, liquor-shop picketing, Hindu-Moslem riots, etc. Young people all over the land are enlisting in the “revolutionary army” and try to further the independent kingdom of Mother India by wearing Gandhi caps and Khaddar; by proclaiming strikes in government schools and colleges; by processions with banners of different slogans (mostly “Boycott British Goods”), by picketing shops selling imported cloth, etc.
Here in Bangalore during the last week we had a hartal. The students in government schools stayed at home. The merchants closed their shops. The people in the markets locked in their vegetables and meats, and went home. If anyone opened his shop, he was urged by pickets to close it as a protest against the arrest of a noncoöperation agitator. We were down town that day, and saw the crowds busily selling tickets (little tags reminding us of tag days in America), the money received thus going to further the cause of Mother India. Mostly young people were engaged in this, and they seemed very enthusiastic about their work, not letting a person escape without a tag.
CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS
Yes, there are schools, dotted here and there over the Indian Empire, nearly a hundred in number, where the students, nearly three thousand strong, never have observed hartal, and never have gone on a strike. Why? Because they are Christians.
Come with us for a visit to one of these schools, South India Training School, near Bangalore, South India. This school is a college, and the students coming from Burma and Ceylon as well as India use the English language well enough for you to understand every word. Ask them why they are in this school instead of being busy with politics like most young people of the day, and here is the answer:
STUDENTS’ TESTIMONIES
Brother John says: “My only object in coming to this school is to prepare myself for the joy of service in this world and for the higher joy of service in the world to come.” John comes from the sunny Eden land of Travancore, where palm groves, rice fields, and sago fields nestle between the ever-winding rivers and backwaters.
Moses, who comes from the same place, has this to say: “I came to South India Training School to learn the great lesson of companionship with Christ in the work of salvation. I came to school for training to engage in service that people everywhere may have the Bible opened to them. The time has come,—the important time when through God’s messengers the scroll is being unrolled to the world. The truth comprised in the first, second, and third angels’ messages is to go to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, and to the islands of the sea. Finally, I came to this school to learn order, thoroughness, punctuality, self-control, a sunny temper, evenness of disposition, integrity, courtesy, and self-sacrifice, and to gain experience in practical life.”
Joseph says: “Why am I at South India Training School when there are so many other colleges and famous universities where I could study? Is it for the purpose of getting worldly knowledge or to win a great name that I came to school? No. I came for the purpose of getting a sound Christian training that I may not be tossed about by the immoral tides of this world, in uncertainty and fanaticism.”
GREATER KNOWLEDGE OF SCRIPTURES
A young man named Wood, from the famous old Maratha stronghold, Poona, has this to say: “I am determined to have a better knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, so that I may be able to present the message of Revelation fourteen, which is now overdue, to the perishing thousands of India. For this reason I am to-day in this school.”13
M. B. Israel of the Telugu country says: “The fear of the Lord lies at the foundation of all true greatness. This fear of the Lord can be obtained only by understanding the true object of education. I believe that God has intrusted to every one of us capacities and powers that they may be returned to Him with a great amount of improvement. Our Saviour’s gifts are granted to us to be used to the best of our ability. He expects us to cultivate our powers, and attain the highest possible capacity for usefulness, that we may do a noble work for God. Every talent that God has given us, whether of mental capacity, money, or influence, is of God, so that we may say with David, ‘All things come of Thee, and of Thine own have we given Thee.’”
“Realizing the importance of the true object of education and the great responsibility that God expects of me in His work, I decided to come to this institution for further development that I may be trained and fitted for the cause of Christ. The principles and the essence of true education are being imparted to us by the devoted teachers of this institution, and it is impossible to obtain such a profitable Christian education in worldly institutions where students are trained to think that one day they will stand upon the summit of intellectual greatness, that they may sit in deliberative and legislative councils, and help to enact laws for the nation. But, they know not God. I am glad that God has separated me from such a set of students whose object is not to suffer for Christ. They will die with the devil.”
DESIRE TO GIVE MESSAGE
Ceylon, the emerald isle of spices, has several representatives here, and this is what one of her sons, R. Wijesinghe, has to say about this school. “I have seen many who have a worldly education, but to-day they are worshiping idols. I thank God for the opportunity He has given me to come to this school; and I pray that He may consecrate me to become a faithful worker that I may carry the message of a soon-coming Saviour to those who are in the darkness of sin.”
Harris, a rather small boy with a big mind, says, “True education is the harmonious development of mind, spirit, and body; in other words, a knowledge of the Holy Scriptures. Such threefold education is received here, and I have here received a longing to see souls saved, a longing to hasten the advent of our Saviour by giving His message of love to those who know it not.”
A group of graduates of the South India Training School
These testimonies were written by the students themselves. Do you not think this school and others of its kind in the Indian Empire will exert an influence for God in these days of revolution and crime? And it is verily by faith that these young people have come to us. Throughout the length and breadth of the land India abounds in institutions of higher learning. Graduates and undergraduates of these institutions are busy preaching “civil disobedience.” The government, which has spent large sums of money on these institutions, is now spending an equal amount keeping the products of them in jail. But education without the word of God could lead to nothing else.
God has asked us to search out the jewels for His kingdom. We have gone. We have found them, among the millions,—oh, so few! But it rejoices our hearts to hear their testimonies ring true and to see them stand firm when tempted by worldly opportunities. We tremble to think of the consequences their faith may bring them in the way of persecution. Idol worship is abating and atheism is increasing. The doctrine of Russia finds ready acceptance in many hearts. But rejoice, all these things are only signs of the soon-coming Redeemer, in whose kingdom many from dark India will doubtless find admittance.
A view of the students and teachers of the South India Training School
