INDIA IN 1865 AND 1895.
By S. H. Kellogg
BY REV. S. H. KELLOGG, D.D. In my work among the people of India this last winter I have been led to contrast the condition of things around me as regards religion with that which generally prevailed when I entered India in 1865. In those days, while, with the memories of the heavy retributions which had been visited on many for their part in the bloody mutiny, we were commonly treated civilly enough, yet no one could point to any evidence of general religious thoughtfulness and unrest in any section of the people. Baptisms there were in those days, but always by ones, twos, or threes; and the missionary had to stand up against an almost invincible indifference in most cases, or a violent and contentious opposition in others. Now the situation is very different. It is not, indeed, true that either indifference or violent opposition is lacking to-day. It is still true that the great mass of the people are wholly engrossed in seeking after the necessities of life, and live as if there were nothing for a man hereafter more than for his cow or buffalo. And then, among certain classes, the intensity of opposition of Christianity seems even greater than in those days. The so-called “Reform Hinduism” of the Arya Samaj is a striking illustration of this. It is, indeed, a question whether the deepest secret of the opposition of the Aryas to Christianity is religious or political; I certainly think it is quite as much the latter; but, everywhere, these even rival Mohammedans in the violence of their opposition to the religion of Christ. Nevertheless, even the opposition has become unlike that of former days, an indication often of apprehension and alarm at the influence of Christian ideas among the people. For if there is still prevailing indifference, it is not, as thirty years ago, an unbroken indifference. At the two extremes of the social scale, especially, there are such evidences of awakening interest in the great facts and truths of Christianity as rightly fill many with joyful anticipations of large blessings in the near future for the sinning and suffering millions of India. First are to be noted the present extensive movements toward Christianity among the low-caste peoples of North India. Very much has been written in the home papers about the great ingathering in the Methodist missions here; and there is no doubt that these brethren have received a very large number of low-caste people in the past few years. These low-caste people can not well be lowered, and are almost sure to be advantaged in a worldly way by the profession of Christianity; and there is thus naturally the greatest danger that many will be led to ask for church membership from purely earthly motives. Still, making all allowance for an admixture, in this and similar cases, of an element which is only Christian in name, the fact still remains undeniable that there is throughout North India a continually increasing inclination among the low-caste peoples to consider the question of becoming Christians; and, in almost all missions, a largely increased ratio of additions to the church. On the other hand, the great number of societies among the educated classes, more or less like the Brahmo Samaj, repudiating, with more or less completeness, the popular Hinduism, often borrowing many Christian terms and thoughts, betokens among these also a great deal of religious unrest. In some instances, indeed, as especially among the Aryas, the hostility to Christianity is only intensified; on the other hand, not a few show more of the spirit of the late Keshab Chandra Sen—a kindly feeling toward Christians, and the greatest admiration, to say no more, for Jesus Christ. In the last two winters I have been endeavoring to reach such by lectures on various subjects connected with the evidences of Christianity, and have never failed to have an audience which, if not always large, yet has always been accessible, attentive, and apparently interested. On such occasion, a few weeks ago, in one of our largest stations, I made the acquaintance of a very attractive character in the person of a missionary of the Brahmo Samaj, a man of somewhat over thirty years of age, who, altho he could not admit the deity and resurrection of our Lord, yet seemed greatly attracted by his person and character. He came, while I was there, to the missionary resident in the station, with whom I was stopping, to ask that, if he would get together a few native gentlemen, the missionary would hold a regular Bible class for their instruction, “for,” said he, with much feeling, “I feel sure that the reason that so many are so hostile to Christianity is because they do not know Christ; and if, by study of the Gospel, they can be but got to know him, I am sure no one can help but love him.” Thus, both among the lowest and the highest in social standing, there is at present an opening here for the Gospel, the like of which could be seen nowhere in this region when I first entered India. The distressing thing is that, to enter these wide-open doors, laborers are so painfully few.—Canada Presbyterian.