OPEN DOORS IN INDIA by J. L. SHAW

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, Cal. · Jun 6, 1906

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 32, No. 22.

OPEN DOORS IN INDIA.

By J. L. SHAW

THERE are a multitude of evidences pointing to the present as the great hour of opportunity in India. The Great Leader in mission movements has unbarred doors which were once tightly closed against the Gospel. Now they are open wide for the Christian worker.

A little more than a hundred years ago when the fire of missions began to burn in the bones of Carey, the English world scorned his purpose of carrying the Gospel to the heathen. When suggesting his ideas to a company of ministers at North Hampton, Dr. Rylands said: "Young man, sit down; when God pleases to convert the heathen He will do it without your help or mine." And later when he and Thomas had paid their transportation on an English boat bound for Calcutta, the East India Company finding out their motives refused to let them go. Having promised the natives of India not to interfere with their religion, the East India Company would not permit missionaries to land in India, should they find passage.

How Great Is the Change

a hundred years have made. The doors have unbarred and are now open. Under British rule not only are missionaries allowed entrance, but their lives and property are protected and missionaries can go to any part of that great land many times with less fear than in their own land. Lady missionaries go alone from one village to another over the plains of India, and often into the rugged hills of the Himalayas, many miles from their fellow workers, living among these needy people months at a time without seeing a European face. He who gave the commission, "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel," is standing guard in this great Gibraltar of heathenism while His servants work.

The peace, order, and quiet now prevailing in India will go down in history as one of the remarkable facts in the record of nations. It hardly seems possible, tho it is true, that 300,000,000 people are governed by a small island of 40,000,000 people 7,000 miles away, with only a few thousand widely scattered representatives in the field. Is there not in this condition of affairs in India an over-ruling providence, and can we not see the hand of God upon the open door in that great land?

The God-Given Longing.

And yet this is only one of many evidences of an open door in India. The unsatisfied condition of the people, the reaching after something better, is an evidence. Prejudice against Christianity is lessening. The shackles of Hinduism are weakening slowly, yet surely, and the restrictive tenants of Hinduism can not forever stand against the invasion of Western civilization. In this period of transition lies the golden hour of opportunity. And what an opportunity and work it is, and only a beginning has been made. We have, as it were, skirted the coast, and discovered a few bays and inlets, but that is all. There are, on an average, only one missionary to every one hundred thousand people in India. At the same rate there would be about 800 Christian workers in the whole United States.

Of the Boys and Girls

not one in a thousand know anything about Jesus Christ. Many have never heard His name. There are so many of these boys and girls that if they joined hand in hand they would make a ring around the world. These children and young people wish to learn, and many of them are glad to attend Christian schools and study the Bible. Not a few accept Christ. At our school at Simaultala, recently five who had been studying the Bible for some time accepted Christ, and were baptized. These schools present a favorable opportunity of teaching the Bible, and again and again are our workers compelled to turn a deaf ear to villagers who ask for a school in their village.

Our purpose in establishing a school in the mountains of India is for the reason that it gives an easy access to the people and affords a splendid opportunity of teaching the people the truths of the Bible.

Where schools are made boarding schools, and the pupils are taken from their heathen environments, and placed under Christian influences, still more can be accomplished. There are many opportunities for opening such schools; and by connecting industries with them, pupils can earn at least sufficient to furnish their food. We hope to see such schools established in the mountains.

Industrial Schools.

It is really necessary to connect industries with mission schools so that pupils may learn some means of making a living. Those who abandon Hinduism and become Christians are ostracised by friends and relatives and become outcasts. A Hindu father regards his son who becomes a Christian as nothing better than a pariah. By Hindu law the son loses all claim to any portion of his father's inheritance. He may not enter his father's house to eat with him again. Even his shadow falling upon his father's food would contaminate it.

We believe these industrial Bible schools afford a grand opportunity for Christian effort. There is an eagerness on the part of Indians to learn, and they will study and study hard. For hard unflagging "cram," the Hindu student stands unrivalled. He will fasten his joy-joy or top-knot of hair to a peg in the wall or to the back of the chair, so as to awaken should he fall asleep. They are loathe to leave their books.

Our Opportunity.

Could the readers of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES see the people of India in their want and need, their willingness to learn and study the Bible, they would be convinced that the Gospel has open doors of opportunity in India. They are our Aryan brothers, and we are only higher in the scale of intelligence by virtue of the Gospel of Christ which has come to us and our fathers.

There was a time when our forefathers were wild untutored heathen in northern Europe. In the goodness of God He sent His Word and found them and revealed unto them His Son. For this we owe an everlasting debt of thanks. How can we better show our gratitude for the favor shown toward than to send the light of truth to our Aryan friends across the sea. In this lies their hope of release from the shackles of Hinduism. In the name of Jesus, and in behalf of these, who as sheep have wandered from their shepherd, let us press into the doors of opportunity now open in India.

Boulder, Colo.

J. L. SHAW.