By J. L. Shaw, Superintendent of India Mission Field
LITTLE did Ziegenbalg and Plutschau, pioneer mission workers in India, comprehend the great work for Christ to follow them, when, two hundred years ago the ninth of last July, they landed at Tranquebar, unknown and unwanted. Little did they think when lying in a prison some time after their arrival of the mighty mission movement of which they were the advance sentinels.
Nor yet did Carey, whose soul was fired with mission zeal nearly a century later, realize the progress which a hundred years since then would make. The English world, so eager to enrich themselves from India's storehouse, little thought the time had come, or ever would come, for planting Gospel seed in Indian hearts. They thought Carey's ideas an interference with divine sovereignty. Mr. Fuller, a personal friend of Carey, said: "If the Lord should make windows in the heavens might such things be." But the hour had struck. The time had come when the great Leader of mission movements was to proclaim a Saviour's love among the multitude of India's sons and daughters, and neither indifference nor governmental interference could stay His hand. He who said, "Go . . . teach all nations," had set His hand to the work among this darkened fifth of mankind, and who could hinder?
Mountain Mission Home, Mussoorie, India.
The record of the last hundred years is a record of progress in mission work in India. Let him who is skeptical but read what God hath wrought. There are now Christian institutions by the thousands: schools, colleges, hospitals, and orphanages holding hundreds; printing-houses with tons of Christian literature. And more, there are in India nearly a million native Christians, and among them many honest hearts loyal to their King Christ Jesus. There will be stars in the crowns of many faithful men and women who have labored and died for India's people in the century past.
Bengali Sabbath-Keeping Christians, Calcutta, India.
Now many different societies are operating in India, and all told between three and four thousand Protestant missionaries. The Bible has been translated into the leading languages, and is being circulated. Every year marks an advance among the lesser tongues and dialects. That word which has shed a flood of light wherever it has gone is slowly yet surely reaching Indian hearts.
And yet with all that has been done, only a beginning has been made. We are contending with a great foe. The battle is fairly on. We have, as it were, skirted the coast and discovered a few bays and inlets, and have some conception of the magnitude of the work to be accomplished among the unwarned millions of India, but that is all. There is approximately one missionary for every one hundred thousand people, but what is that? Think of a city of a million pagans with ten workers for Christ among them, and remember they are hurrying on to Christless graves.
Elder G. F. Jones, Workers, and School, Singapore. (See page 22, for article.)
We believe that this Gospel of the kingdom is to be preached in all the world for a witness to every nation, and that in this generation. The golden morn is about to dawn. The end is near. Christ is soon coming. A short, quick work is to be done. The warning note of truth must be hurried on among these people and reinforcements are wanted. An army of consecrated soldiers is needed to push on the triumphs of the cross of Christ. Who will give himself to this work?
Our own mission has about thirty foreign missionaries in India, and a few local workers, about one for every ten million. It is as tho the people of Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, and Nebraska all were heathen, and had but one representative of present truth among them. We should strengthen our forces. Our work is hardly yet begun. We have but seen the need in part and can send back to our people in the home land the Macedonian cry. The following appeal in verse, from our leper brother in India, is the echo of that cry:
Hopeless millions here are moving
On toward the great last day,
Poor and naked, blind and wretched
Worshipers of wood and clay.
They have never heard of Jesus,
Nor of His redeeming love.
How He shed His blood to give them
Life and rest in heaven above.
They have never heard of heaven,
Or the city over there;
With its golden streets and portals,
And its walls of jasper rare;
Of the glorious kingly mansions
That the saints will soon attain,
When their Saviour, Christ, appeareth
Once again on earth to reign.
Brethren, come and tell these millions
Who are dying every day,
Lead them to the cross of Jesus,
From their gods of wood and clay.
Come, for time is quickly fleeting,
Come along without delay;
India needs more faithful workers,
Come for Christ's dear sake, we pray.
