THE BIBLE IN INDIA by George H. Rouse, D. D.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · May 11, 1904

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 19.

THE BIBLE IN INDIA.

By George H. Rouse, D. D.

INDIA—a "country" we call it, and think, perhaps, that it is simply a country like France or Germany, with one people and one language; but really it is as much a continent as Europe is, with many peoples and many languages. A card has been prepared which gives an outline of India on a map of Europe. In this card Kashmir is on the Arctic Circle; and Ceylon on Greece; Kurrachee is in Ireland, Calcutta near Moscow, and Rangoon near the Caspian Sea. An outline of India on the map of America would show Kashmir at Winnipeg, and Ceylon at Mexico; Kurrachee is in the west of Dakota, Calcutta at Washington, and the coast line of Burma running many hundreds of miles south of Nantucket. India is as large as all Europe outside of Russia; its population is somewhat about as dense, and it has as many languages as are spoken in Europe. If we include the languages of the various hill tribes in India, the number is far larger than those spoken in Europe. The population of India by the last census was about 300,000,000.

To give the Bible to India has meant for the last hundred years a large work of preparation; and the men to do it have been merely the ones and the twos who could with great difficulty be spared for the work out of the mere handful of missionaries on the field. Moreover, they have almost all been foreigners, who had to spend many years in the study of the language they work in before they could commence their labor; and that language is a heathen language, with no words to express the distinctions of Christian teaching, and sometimes without even a word for "God" which is at all suitable. Not only so, but all these languages are more or less in a state of flux, being year by year considerably modified by the influence of Western thought, and the increasing spread of the English language. In regard to the languages of the hill tribes, missionaries have found no grammar or dictionary existing for any of them, but have been forced to pick up the language as best they could, and then put it in shape themselves, before they could even begin the work of translating the Bible, or preparing a Christian literature.

According to the report of the British and Foreign Bible Society, the whole Bible has been translated into nineteen Indian languages, the New Testament into nine other languages, and Scripture portions into eighteen more. One of the chief aims of the Serampore missionaries was to produce the Bible, or portions of it, in all languages of India, and it is astonishing how much they are able to accomplish in this line. But their versions were necessarily very imperfect, and so often they were altogether unaccompanied by the living voice. God's plan is that the two should go together; and for the most part Bible translation in India has proceeded on this principle. Translations have been made only in the languages of those among whom missionaries are at work.

The whole Bible has been translated into almost, if not quite, all the main languages of India, and revised in many of them. One of the hill languages, spoken by rather less than two hundred thousand persons, the Khassi, has its Bible, owing to the fact that the Welsh Presbyterians have a very successful mission among this people. Other hill languages have the New Testament or one or two gospels. Many different branches of the church of Christ have taken their part in this work of providing for the people of India the Bible which all sections of the church alike reverence.

In all parts of India, the distribution of the Bible is being carried on by agents of missionary societies, and by colporteurs. We may safely say that fully half a million copies of the Bible, or of Scripture portions, are being distributed every year in India. We have had many instances of these scattered portions of the Word of God leading men to believe in Christ.—George H. Rouse, D. D., Calcutta.