IN the statistics quoted in a former note, showing the seven-tenths per cent. of nominally Christian population in India, we have included the widespread Roman Catholic population. The Roman Church is the most numerous in India, and one finds her institutions everywhere. She has the best schools, it is said, so far as secular education is concerned, and they are multiplying continually. Their work is done very quietly, and there is little evangelistic effort among them, as village preaching. Francis Xavier, who came out in the sixteenth century to turn the people to the faith of Rome, had political influence behind him, so that it was hardly safe for the people within the Portuguese sphere of influence to resist his arguments too strenuously. Thus Rome began in India.
Now, shorn of secular power, the agents of the Roman Church still have a system which gives them the advantage. The mystery, the human authority, and the ease with which Catholicism is adapted to the minds of the people, bear ready fruit, and they seem to have more hold on their people than most Protestant missions. Protestant converts wander from one communion to another with an astonishing ease, and very often they try the Catholic fold, but apparently not as many get out of that as fall into it. A writer in the Harvest Field, a missionary journal in southern India, says of the Catholic converts:—
“The more respectable native Catholics observe caste. Pudupett, a district of Madras City, is almost entirely inhabited by this class, and in a stroll through it you may see Sivites and Vishnuvites wearing the distinguishing marks of their caste. The Sivite who follows the ‘way of works,’ has on his sacred ashes and the pottu, or circular dot, in the center of his forehead. The Vishnuvite who practises the ‘way of faith,’ has his namum, the trident-shaped mark of Vishnu, painted on his forehead. Round his shoulders is suspended the sacred thread. Outwardly you suppose these men to be respectable caste Hindus, but round the neck of some you see small pictures of patron saints, and then you know that the people are Roman Catholic, and, more than this, you ascertain that, after joining the Catholic Church, the converts are allowed to observe all the usages of the particular caste in which they were born. The blend is a curious mixture of Christianity and Hinduism. Thus in their marriages the Christian part of the ceremony is celebrated in the church by the priest; the Hindu part is performed in the house of the contracting parties. The Hindu ceremonies last three days, and on the last day is the crowning ceremony of Sheshai, in which a Brahman priest pronounces Hindu prayers and scatters rice upon the bride and bridegroom. They have marriage processions through the streets with music and tom-toms. Another matter in which they closely resemble the Hindus is in their car festivals. Images of Christ, the Virgin Mary, and other saints are placed in the car, precisely as Hindu gods are placed, and the cars are dragged through the streets to the accompaniment of native and sometimes English music. The festival ends in a grand display of fireworks.”
But this caste survival is not altogether peculiar to Roman missions. One finds it everywhere among Protestant converts more or less, and it is a thing that requires constant dealing with. This, together with the heathen or Moslem idea of woman, which has fastened itself more or less upon the Christian community, stirs one’s soul continually. And in my opinion, it is one thing at the root of the confessed failure of self-supporting churches in India. Doubtless one reason why Protestant missionaries have not grappled with the question more energetically is the fact that in all likelihood the society that tried to put things on a living basis would lose a good proportion of its converts. But it would be a blessed loss to all the societies if they could but see it, and they might get down to a basis where they could build up. Frequently we hear of converts transferring themselves from one society to another over some question of discipline or of support. The necessity of coddling and helping communities to hold them seems to paralyze many missionaries. The practical situation that confronts the old and large societies, who might be supposed to have solved some of the problems, is shown by the following recent report from a Protestant missionary in one of the southern districts:—
“So far from caste feelings abating with the advance of Christianity, I grieve to say that they seem to increase as time goes on. We have had the oldest and best congregation in the whole district refuse to receive a trained Christian master of Chuckler origin, simply on caste grounds, tho the master’s house is far from the village, and does not touch their own in any way. Christians refused to receive him, because he was born a Chuckler—a lower caste than their own—and when pressed to do so, they threatened secession to Rome if this master was forced upon them.
“As a counterblast, the nearest Chuckler congregation has withdrawn from divine services with Christians of Pariah origin, and threaten to secede altogether if not provided with a master of their own.”
Everybody knows that the trouble is that these poor people were taken into the church unconverted, supposing that they were Christians. And now after a generation of such things the little light has become gross darkness. The place to meet heathenism is at the gate. This thing is so widespread among the missions, specially in South India, that the missionaries have organized a society to fight it. One can hardly understand the necessity of any different kind of society than the Christian church itself to fight caste and heathenism within the church. But unless there is cooperation the old, old trouble in India would be seen when pressure was brought to bear,—converts would transfer their allegiance to other societies. The situation is the most difficult imaginable on these grounds, and only by utterly separating one’s self from all that is of the proselytizing spirit can any advance be made. Not converts to any mission nor to anybody, but only to the Lord Jesus Christ, are wanted. And on this principle one finds perfect freedom to work for any or all, regardless of the great cry that is raised in certain circles whenever one attempts to give the Word to one who is already a “convert.”
The object of this anti-caste society is thus stated by the secretary:—
“The object of this society is to do something—to work and not merely to talk. Many missionaries say, ‘O, yes, we disapprove of caste, but we do not believe in drastic measures!’ and so on. But when we ask what their methods and measures are, they are silent. They use caste titles when addressing members of their congregations, as they are afraid of offending them—regardless of the fact that caste is offensive to God. Their reports attach caste titles to all names. They have their ‘caste’ schools, whereby the mission puts its imprimatur on caste. They allow communicants to approach the Lord’s table in the order of caste. They marry with a tali that indicates caste. In God’s acre the different castes are kept carefully apart from one another.”
Does anybody that knows the message for these days wonder that Seventh-day Adventists in India do not recognize any boundary lines within which they must give the Word, and are ready to teach converts or Hindus that the times of ignorance God has winked at, but now He commandeth all men everywhere to repent, because the kingdom of heaven is at hand? Whether from among the heathen or the convert communities will come a larger proportion of believers in the message, no one can tell. But we know that the third angel’s message of Revelation 14 is for every creature, and we thank God that we are free to give it to all who come within the sound of our voices or within reach of our literature. Many talk of the conversion of India as the Roman Empire was converted. And some Protestant missionaries draw lessons as to the methods and policy from the fathers of the early church. They fail to see that what they are studying as the development of the church of Christ, sweeping on to the triumphant conquering of the great empire in the early centuries, so far from being what they suppose, was really the growth of apostasy and the development of that awful man of sin.
It is a solemn fact that in modern missionary methods there is a tendency in the same direction. God grant that the multitudes of honest godly and heroic missionaries who may not now see the message for these closing days, may see it, and find it the help that it is. As for many ecclesiastically-minded managers of missions, some will of necessity stumble. Some are already teaching their converts, who first of all learned the Ten Commandments, that these are now of “low tone,” and that as Christ kept them, we mustn’t. And the doctrine is practised to an alarming extent.