p. 12 | India Mission Field by G. B. THOMPSON

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Jul 10, 1907

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 33, No. 28.

India Mission Field.

By G. B. THOMPSON

INDIA is an empire, with a history reaching back for twenty centuries, and more. It is some 1,900 miles in length, and, including Burma, has a total width of nearly 2,500 miles, and a total area of more than one and a half million of square miles. It reaches from the cool and rugged range of the Himalayas to the hottest regions near the equator.

This entire territory swarms with human beings. Here is found nearly three hundred million souls enslaved and shackled in heathenism. And these twenty centuries of darkness and superstition have done a terrible work; their baneful effects can not be truly pictured; they must be seen to be fully understood. Then, too, covetous rulers, ruthless conquerors, revolution, famine, and pestilence have each done their work, and thousands have fallen victims to their terrible visitations. Tho there are many wealthy people, it is a land of poverty. Between the rajah and the ryot, or peasant, there is a tremendous step. One writer says that hunger is chronic. In some places it would seem that this might be true.

Caste, religion, language, wealth, and poverty separate the people. The principal religions are Mohammedanism and Hinduism—sixty millions of the former and one hundred and eighty millions of the latter.

"India" a Cosmopolitan Term.

The term “India” should really convey to our minds a cosmopolitan suggestion, something the same as European. It is a designation under which are grouped many distinct races and various languages. The people differ widely. This has been one thing I have noticed in riding thru the country. Those who live in the Himalaya hills are brawny, muscular races,—the strongest in physique I have ever seen. They are the common carriers. Baggage, fuel, lumber, iron girders for buildings, etc., are carried from the plains up into the hills, and the loads they carry almost surpass belief. Leaving the hills and coming down thru the plains for nearly two thousand miles, a difference is seen; the races taper off almost with the regularity of a chromatic scale down the burning plains and under the terrific heat of the tropical sun.

Weather and Crop Conditions.

The people mostly all live in villages, which as a rule are small. Paddy, or rice, is one of the staple productions. If the proper amount of rain falls during the monsoon period, the ryot, or peasant, is happy, as a crop is thus assured. But if rain is withheld, as it sometimes is, the terrors of a famine are threatened. Anxiously they scan the heavens for signs of rain, and the blue sky above may have written on it the doom of thousands.

British rule, however, has as in other countries done much for this land. Extensive irrigation schemes have been pushed thru, and barren regions of territory have been transformed into fertile country.

Religious Idolatry.

Many of the people worship the rivers, the principal one of which is the Ganges. In the darkness of the mind this is not so much to be wondered at. When famine has threatened they have seen the river, fed from the melting snows of the Himalayas (Himalaya means the abode of snow), rise and water their fields and give them food.

Gradually they have been thus led to worship water. To bathe in the waters of Mother Ganges, as the river is called, is supposed to purify from sin during life, and the wish of the devoted Hindu is that he may have the privilege when dying to be on the banks of the sacred river that his body may be consumed in the burning ghats (the Hindus burn their dead), and his ashes borne by her waters to the ocean. O, how much these dear souls need the Gospel, that they may know that holiness and purity of life can be obtained only thru faith in the atoning blood of Christ.

A Babel of Tongues..

There are many languages and dialects in India, and missionaries who come to this field must in order to do successful work for the millions of the Indian population acquire a language. Out of the entire population it is estimated that not more than 5,000,000 speak the English language, and only a small percentage of this number are Europeans. In 1901 the number of languages spoken by more than a million was eighteen. The language most widely spoken is the Hindu. More than 87,000,000 speak this tongue. This is equal to the entire population of the United States. As yet we have only a few workers who speak this language, and who are able to give the last message of salvation to the people in their own language. We must have many educated young men and women sent to this field, who come to stay, and master this language. Of other leading languages spoken are the following:

| Bengali, spoken by | 44,000,000 | | Telugu, " " | 20,000,000 | | Marathi " " | 18,000,000 | | Punjabi, " " | 17,000,000 | | Tamil " " | 16,000,000 | | Rajasthani, " " | 10,000,000 | | Kanarese, " " | 10,000,000 | | Gujarati, " " | 10,000,000 | | Burmese, " " | 8,000,000 |

Need of Consecrated Workers.

I have been greatly impressed during my visit to this field with the need of consecrated workers to pioneer the work of the third angel's message in all these languages. Literature must also be prepared on the fundamental points of the message and circulated everywhere. The end is near at hand, yet a tremendous work remains to be done. Why, if we believe that the Lord's coming is at hand, should there be so many workers in the home land, and so few in India? We thank the Lord for the consecrated band of workers already in the field and for the work already begun, but we must have many more to join them. Reader, are you ready to devote your life to the work in this field? If not, why not?

India needs the Gospel, not in some adulterated form but in its purity and power. They need to be taught the true Sabbath, not a heathen festival day,

that they may indeed remember the God who is the Creator of all things.

Then again, the entire system of false religions, with all their attendant superstition and abominations, is permeated with the false dogma of the immortality of the soul. Remove this from their idolatrous forms, and they would indeed collapse. India's millions need a Gospel free from this satanic falsehood, that will teach these poor souls that eternal life comes only by faith in the Son of God. In fact, as I mingle with the people, and study the situation, I can see how the truths of the third angel's message are peculiarly well adapted to the needs of the people of this land as well as others. May the Lord speedily raise up workers clothed with the power of the Holy Spirit who will carry this glorious message with power to the people of India.

G. B. THOMPSON.