p. 12 | India by J. L. Shaw

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Feb 13, 1912

India

By J. L. Shaw

Needs of the Great Field

INDIA is every day coming into closer touch with Western thought and learning. Having more than thirty thousand miles of railway reaching even to the furthermost corners of the empire, with well-organized postal and telegraph systems and hundreds of daily and weekly publications echoing constantly Western ideals and sentiment, new thought is coming in, old standards are waning, and India is reshaping her ideas in the light of opinions of the West.

She is not satisfied with the contracted and stupid teaching of her forefathers. A wave from the West is upon her shores, the light is shining, a new day has come—a time of times, which is surely God's time, to make known in India the riches of His grace in Christ.

The Opportune Time

Looked at from the map, India is but a small peninsula of Southern Asia; yet her territory embraces an empire containing one fifth of the human family. Lined up in the row of one billion and a half of humankind, one face in five bears the Aryan mark of Hindustan. An evolution among this sea of mankind is a fact of world-wide interest; and to the Christian believing in the soon coming of Christ and the proclamation of the Gospel to the world in this generation, it is surely a sign of the times, and an open providence into which the Christian church should enter with her strength. Never has there been a time more opportune, when forces and facilities seemed to conspire in making the present hour the time of great opportunity for the Gospel worker in India.

The great danger of the church at the present is the liability of closing her ears to the call of God now sounding in the East. To slacken the hand at this juncture and fail to fill in the gap, while Western agnosticism and infidelity are crowding in, is a failure to meet God's appointment and follow His open providences for the entrance of His Word.

God's children must not rest content. We have done no service and made no sacrifice in proportion to the present need in India. Christ could not remain in the bosom of the Father and redeem a lost world. Missionaries can not win the heathen and enjoy home comforts or surroundings, neither can they be rightly sustained and their work largely increased and maintained without the loving sacrifice of many friends and donors who are giving largely and freely of their means for God's kingdom in heathen lands.

A Stupendous Undertaking

Stop and consider. How shall the people of India, speaking one hundred and fifty different languages, divided by many beliefs and castes, be told of Jesus and His soon coming? It is a stupendous undertaking. Their minds have become ingrained with false and superstitious ideas of heathenism. The rudiments and fundamentals of Christianity must be taught the people. They do not know what sin is. Their consciences must be enlightened and a hatred of sin aroused. To do this—to erect the standard of Christian faith, and cry out God's message for to-day, and do it within the limits of this generation—may well tax the resources of God's people. So great an undertaking is surely a challenge to our faith.

We talk of sacrifice, and in our "ceiled houses" may really think we are sacrificing; but are we? Surely not in the light of the cross. As we read of Jesus, His place in heaven, His humiliation, His sacrificing life on earth and cruel death upon the cross, what have we done as compared with His sufferings for us? What are a few dollars for missions every year while we are living in comfort and oftentimes in luxury? What are small gifts while millions are hurrying on to Christless graves? Is it a time to settle back in our easy chairs and deceive ourselves into really thinking we are sacrificing to carry the Gospel to heathen lands?

Booker T. Washington, in speaking of his work at Tuskegee, says, "We never talk about making a sacrifice;" nor can we who have answered God's call to present His last word to this generation. It is a menace to God's work in heathen lands for us to rest upon our oars and think we are sacrificing. The Christian church in America is giving of her abundance.

Are We Sacrificing?

We have by no means reached the point of sacrifice in our giving. Go with me to an Indian home, and there you can see the bareness of simple want. There are the coarse, bare mud walls, with earthen floor and thatched roof; no pictures on the walls, no table, no easy chairs, in fact no chairs at all. A few provisions, possibly a rope bed, a few clay pots, and nothing more, constitute the household furnishings. And yet these people give for the support of their heathen religion. They deny themselves even of the necessities of life, that they may obtain favor of the gods. By fasting, by pilgrimage, and by torturing their bodies, they hope to obtain salvation.

Friends, what ought we to do who have been blessed with the Gospel of Christ? "The lines have fallen unto us in pleasant places." "We have a goodly heritage." Should we not thankfully give more largely of our means for the support of mission work in such countries as India, where the people are so poor, with needs so great?

Our Forces Should Be Increased

Our mission has thus far opened up mission work in eight languages, at fourteen mission stations; but what are they as we look at the people of India as a whole? In the languages already entered we have scarcely made a beginning. With scores of tongues unentered, and whole nations numbering many millions still unknowing of the soon coming of Christ, the need and the auspicious time of entrance appeal to us, and we can but call out to the Christian army at home and urge an immediate advance. We should double and treble our forces in the field. There are hundreds of openings for mission stations, for Christian teachers of village schools, and medical missionaries

to treat the sick. The printing-press has before it no light undertaking. To provide manuscript, to translate it rightly into different vernaculars, to provide type of so many characters, and facilities such as printing-presses and other machinery necessary for printing the same, and then to circulate the word of truth among the masses, is no ordinary undertaking. It is altogether beyond our small force and few facilities in the field. We can but view the need, send back the word, and continually call on God for help. Surely He has the forces for the accomplishment of His work, and in His way and by His means the light of the Gospel will shine forth until Hindu and Mohammedan, Buddhist and Jain shall know of Jesus and salvation in His name. May His servants at home, with those in the field, do their part until the work is done.

J. L. SHAW. Mussoorie, India.