INDIA by E. Robinson

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Michigan · Sep 11, 1900

INDIA

By E. Robinson

Since coming to Bombay in November, 1899, we have been busy, soliciting subscriptions for the Oriental Watchman, and canvassing for our large books, “Patriarchs and Prophets,” and “The Great Controversy between Christ and Satan,” nearly a hundred of which have been placed in the homes of Bombay. A goodly number of health books has also been sold. We hope that the canvassing will be continued during the coming winter, with the public preaching of the message.

A tent could be pitched at a central place, and readily reached by all who choose to come; as Bombay has one of the best street-car plants that is in operation, and for two cents, United States’ value, one may be conveyed anywhere within city limits.

Meanwhile, as we have opportunity, we are holding Bible readings in the homes of the people. One young man, a native of the north of Ceylon, who speaks Tamil and Marathi, and has a good command of the English language, has, together with his wife, become much interested in the study of the message, and is now considering the question of the Sabbath. We hope that they will soon take their stand firmly for the Lord. An Armenian family have been receiving Bible instruction for several weeks, and seem eager to learn. We have also begun services at our home Sunday evenings, and already one woman observes the Sabbath, and rejoices in the light she has received.

Brother Richardson reports a new Sabbath-keeper at Otacamund, where he has been introducing the Oriental Watchman, and is anxious that public meetings be begun there soon, to develop the interest that has been awakened. Doors are open to us all through India.

The readers of the paper and books are calling for our preachers, and we are equally anxious to fill the demand, but find that we can not spread our company fast enough nor far enough to meet the necessities of the people. I trust that workers may soon be found in the home field who can come over and help us cast in the gospel net without delay.

A few weeks ago it fell to my lot to visit the famine districts. The famine relief fund had been coming in; and as I am the nearest to the distressed area, it was thought advisable that I should investigate the situation, and get, if possible, a more intelligent idea as to the most practical and helpful way of distributing the funds received.

Happily for me, when the time came to go, I met a missionary returning from Bombay to his district, which was in the famine neighborhood, and he kindly invited me to go with him. We traveled north, on the B. B. & C. I. Ry., three hundred and twenty-seven miles, to a small station called Sanand, in Gujarát. Here we exchanged the train for a bullock-cart, belonging to my missionary friend, and rode ten miles, to a small village, where the famine is a horrible reality.

It did not seem possible that men could be reduced to such skeletons and still be able to move about, but there they were before us.

One poor man, who applied for relief from the missionary, said he had managed thus far to maintain his family, and to keep his buffalo alive, by gathering green leaves, but at last had been forced to beg for help. Many had sold their doors from their houses to get a few pice, with which to buy food; others had gone so far as to pull down the rafters from over their heads for the same purpose. These people were given immediate relief, each family receiving a small amount of grain. Plans were laid to open relief works as soon as possible, so that the needy could earn something with which to sustain their families.

Arrangements were made for some to begin digging wells, the missionary paying them each day for the work done, thus affording immediate relief. The wells, once dug, will become a future source of water supply, and a means of irrigation. As far as possible, all work on the principle of helping the people to help themselves, and so discountenance the idea, now gaining currency, that the people are to be fed and clothed without any effort on their part.

Mr. King, my missionary friend, said he had opened two grain depots, where the people can buy small quantities of rice below the actual cost, care being taken to ascertain that the person who calls to buy at these reduced rates is a real sufferer from famine, and worthy of help. As part of the grain is sold at reduced rates, and part is dispensed gratuitously, it requires constantly inflowing funds to keep things going; and we were glad to leave with this missionary a part of the funds placed at our disposal for this purpose.

I visited other missionaries, and found them united in their efforts to save life, and to make the people self-supporting, encouraging them until the coming rains should prepare the fields for cultivation. They have now had rain throughout the famine districts, and I hope that the worst is over, and that growing crops will soon bid the famine depart.

Cholera has broken out, and I have just received a letter from Mr. King, saying that after an illness of a few hours, his little daughter died of that disease. He spoke in grateful terms of the fund placed with him for famine relief, and said that he had been praying for money to erect a cheap hospital for the very weak famine sufferers, and believed he could now do this.

The money coming to us from America and other places has served a double purpose,—that of famine relief, and Christian fellowship; for by sharing with the missionaries already in the field, we prove to them our comradeship. E. ROBINSON.