p. 20 | J. L. SHAW by J. L. Shaw

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 5, 1903

J. L. SHAW

By J. L. Shaw

India

RECENTLY seven souls were baptized at Calcutta and united with the church. Several others are contemplating baptism. A letter from Brother Meyers, of Burma, tells of the baptism of three persons at Thayetmayo, Burma. He also sends with it the first statement of tithe paid by brethren in Burma. Our literature is arousing people in all parts of the empire. These people need more light and instruction, that they may know the message for this time. There is to be a great harvest of souls in this land. Consecrated reapers will meet with a joyful ingathering as they patiently sow the seeds of truth among these millions. Men and means are needed to herald the triumphs of the cross to every part of this benighted land. Now is the time to push onward the work in India. Western ideas are breaking down the prejudice and customs of past generations, and a willingness to accept something better is coming in. The devil is making use of this to flood the land with infidelic literature from the West. Seeing that the religion of their forefathers is false, many Indians are seeking for truth, but alas! the enemy is in the forefront; he is bewitching minds with infidelic ideas and “isms” of every sort to turn them from God. He knows how to captivate the philosophic mind of the Hindu.

They are looking toward the nations of the West, many of them longing for something better than what they have, but a foul cloud is settling down upon them. The curses of Europe and America are rapidly gaining a foothold in this country. America has captured the tobacco market in India, and cigarettes are being poured into the country at so small a cost that the poorest are able to buy them. Far and wide this evil is going, and slaves to the cigarette habit can be counted by the million. Children in the streets are being captivated by cheap, poisonous cigarettes doled out to them at two pice (a cent) per packet of ten.

India is also being brought under the habit of tea drinking, which is a thing Indians of previous generations did not touch. To help the tea raisers of the Himalayas, the government of India is encouraging people all over the empire to drink tea, and is furnishing it to them so cheaply that all can buy, knowing full well that when once an appetite is gained, there will be an outlet for the product of tea growers.

To lift our voice against all this evil is our duty. To show the people the evil and point them to the good is the work before us. There is something far better than all this. But how shall benighted Indians know this unless those to whom the gospel of health and salvation has been committed give that gospel to them? If every man who has this trust will be loyal to the Giver, and pass the good news on, it will not take long to reveal the truth in every language and among all people. May that time come soon, and the Orient with its accumulated evil of past ages be set ablaze with the message of salvation.