A PITIFUL PLEA FROM A STRICKEN LAND.
By S.
A BUDDHIST priest, Dr. H. Dharmapala, is now on the Pacific Coast lecturing in behalf of the people of India. He is looking for missionaries, but not missionaries of the cross, to go to India and work for the uplifting of his people. He says that his country is suffering from an overabundance of gods, a plethora of gods, he calls it, about 333,000,000 in all. That would be about one god for each inhabitant of the country. He tells us that scarcely anything is being done to improve the condition of the millions who were once a great people, but who have now fallen into a most pathetic condition. What he asks is the personal services of those who are willing to work along “ethical, philanthropic, educational, and scientific lines for the most helpless, illiterate, degraded, and superstitious people on earth.” These are the words of Dharmapala himself, high priest of that religion which has helped to make these conditions possible. It is a pitiful plea, this appeal of a Buddhist priest, pitiful because of the terrible conditions which lie back of it, and pitiful also because of the acknowledged impotence of that system of worship to do anything for the uplift of that idol-stricken people. But Dharmapala hopes to reap the results of the uplifting and civilizing influence of Christianity with the Christianity left out, and through agents which are antagonistic to Christianity. It can never be. The world owes its spiritual and mental and true physical uplift to the influence which Christianity has exerted on the world—not through instrumentalities antagonistic to it, but by virtue of the power that lay in it, the power of Him who lived it and was its Author. This is not saying that heathen countries have not benefited by the Gospel and do not benefit by it. They have, and they do, and they will continue to benefit thereby, even when the majority of the people are not in harmony with Christianity. And further than that, those not in harmony will benefit by it. But the benefit comes through the influence and teachings and ministrations of those who are Christians. Its opposers can not plant its seed nor give to others its benefits. They may carry about the empty vessels from which the bread of life has been freely distributed to others; but they can not feed the multitude. They may put nets in the hands of their fellows; but they can not tell on which side of the ship to cast the net, nor furnish the fish to fill it. From the day when Abram was called out of Ur, the people of the nations have been deriving benefits from the spread and prevalence of Christianity; but God has never put the instruments of His kingdom, the vessels of His temple, in the hands of those who knew Him not. The benefits of Christianity must come through its Author and those who are His. India needs help, and Dharmapala, the priest of Buddha, knows it; but he is looking to man and not to God for that help. His mission is bound to fail. He recognizes the failure of India’s 333,000,000 idols. There is no help in them; neither in the source to which he looks for help, the Theosophical societies of the world. Upon the only possible source of help he has turned his back; to the only light which can lighten his people he has closed his eyes. He sees nothing but his great need, and reaches out in his darkness for help to those who have been blessed with the blessings that Christianity has bestowed upon the world, but who have failed to recognize either the Giver or the meaning of the gift. What, then, must the Christian do? He must give to Dharmapala’s people the only remedy there is, even tho Dharmapala and his people do not recognize it as a remedy at all; and that is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In that is the very uplifting power which that people need, whether they know it now or not. To those who receive it the civilizing and uplifting and saving power will come. They will be blessed by it, and will in turn be a blessing to others, even to those who never learn the mystery of its power. Christianity is the salt of the earth. Wherever Christians are scattered that salt is doing its work; and there is no country in the world to-day in greater need of it. There are those in India who have been able to recognize “when good cometh,” and they are rejoicing to-day in the blessings that have come to them through the acceptance of God’s remedy for sin and all the results of sin. India’s pitiable condition is a result of the workings of sin, the transgression of God’s law. In that transgression self has been exalted in the worship of the gods to which the people have bowed down. They have frightfully abused their bodies to win the approbation of their gods and their fellow-men. The whole caste institution is designed to exalt some men above their fellows, and keep others down. The teachings of that religion have led men to think themselves a part of the Deity and capable of being absorbed into the person of the Deity. The whole tendency of this teaching, while exalting self, has debased and degraded a mighty people, until one of their own priests can speak of them as “the most helpless, illiterate, degraded, and superstitious people on earth.” India needs the Gospel. She knows she is needy; but does not know what will supply her need. She does not know the Gospel, but she needs it, and she needs it now. We have the Gospel; can we withhold it from her and still have it? She needs the light; we have the light, the very light of life. Can we keep it to ourselves and still have it? The duty of the Christian toward earth’s idol-stricken people is made plain in the Gospel itself. That Gospel is a pure, living, flowing stream. Stagnant water is never pure. If we accept the Gospel and then seek to hold it to ourselves, it is no longer the water of life, and we who so hold it make of ourselves stagnant pools instead of living springs. India is appealing for help. The Christian must answer her appeal, even tho he may know that she does not recognize his Saviour as her helper, or him as the instrumentality through which that help will come. S.