The Field Before Us in India
By Ellery Robinson
It is very encouraging to hear of the missionary spirit which is moving many in our ranks to give themselves to the work in the dark regions beyond, leaving their homes to hold up the banner of truth where the need is great, and the laborers are few. It was my privilege to work in India for over five years, devoting most of the time to canvassing for our large books, and working up the subscription list for our monthly paper, The Oriental Watchman. I had a good opportunity to learn by observation something of the vastness of the field, and the need which exists there; and I have been watching with much interest the departure of different workers to distant lands, to see if some of them were booked for India. Among about three hundred million souls in that field, there is but a handful of workers to carry on the different departments of labor,—only two ordained ministers, and one of them must devote a large portion of his time to editorial matters, and the general oversight of the work in that field. Until more ministerial help is supplied, the extension of the work beyond its present limits must be comparatively slow. Our health publications have been circulated quite freely by the canvassers throughout India and Burma, and “Patriarchs and Prophets” and “Great Controversy,” with a few copies of “Daniel and the Revelation,” “Prophetic Lights,” and some smaller books have followed the health books. Since May, 1898, The Oriental Watchman has been published monthly, having now a circulation throughout India and Burma of about four thousand copies. Thus the ground has been prepared for aggressive work by the living preacher among the English-speaking people of India. These are Englishmen who hold a government position, or are engaged in some private enterprise connected with the products of the country, such as silk, cotton, jute, hides, wheat, etc.; a large class of Eurasians, whose language is English, also the educated Hindus and Parsees who have acquired the English, and can speak, read, and write it readily. The latter class are not a few, and by the providence of God are ready for the message to be presented to them in the English language. The importance of reaching these English-speaking people of India quickly may be better understood when we realize that among them are representatives of the many different languages and dialects of India. Such, when they accept, the message will be valuable helpers to get the same before their own people in their native tongue, both by word of mouth and by the printed page. Judging from the work of other denominations it would seem that our work for India’s millions must be largely carried forward through tracts and leaflets printed in the many different dialects. If all the people of India spoke the same dialect, the work would be wonderfully simplified; but as it is, from a human standpoint it appears prodigious. If our people in the more favored fields understood what needs to be accomplished for India before Jesus comes, would not many be ready to spend and to be spent for this great and needy field? While traveling in India, it has been a pleasure to me to find many searchers after light. A native in Bombay by some means had seen a copy of “His Glorious Appearing,” in which was stamped my address. He wrote to me, asking if he could get a copy, and if I could also get him a Bible. I called upon him with the desired books, both of which he bought. He also readily subscribed for The Oriental Watchman.
Another native through reading The Watchman was sufficiently interested to ask me to visit his native place in the north of Ceylon to solicit subscriptions to The Watchman from his relatives and friends. An educated Parsee subscribed for The Watchman in Bombay, and told me afterward that he was reading the paper with much interest and pleasure, and ventured the remark that if I should hire a hall, and give some lectures on the subjects presented in the paper, he had no doubt that many of his Parsee friends would attend.
In Jubbulpore, a place in the central part of India, I found a native who had seen or heard about “The Great Controversy,” and was very anxious to possess a copy himself.
These are indications of how God is going out before us to prepare the hearts of men in India for the everlasting gospel. Bombay has a population of over eight hundred thousand, about two thousand of whom are Europeans. Madras has a population of four hundred and fifty thousand, among whom are many English. Other smaller but important cities in the Central and Northwest Provinces are waiting for the living preacher. “Now, just now, is our time to work in foreign countries.” Who is now ready to do something for India by going, or helping to send others, to that field?