South India by C. E. Weaks

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 17, 1913

South India

By C. E. Weaks

C. E. WEAKS

LEAVING Calcutta the evening after the Sabbath, January 4, I started for our South India Mission station, a distance of fifteen hundred miles. This trip is an interesting one, as the railway skirts the east coast much of the distance, the ocean being in full view in many places. For more than five hundred miles we journey through the great Telegu language area. Nearly 20,000,000 persons speak this tongue, and as yet not a representative of this message has located among them. Other missions, especially Roman Catholic, have been very successful among them, and hundreds of Catholic churches are scattered through all parts of that vast area. This church makes rapid progress, especially among the Hindus, there being such marked similarities between the two forms of worship. Both are based largely upon superstition, image-, saint-, and ancestor-worship. No change of heart is necessary, and the poorer and lower-caste Hindus by outwardly accepting Catholicism are given the privileges of better houses of worship and more attractive images than they before enjoyed. We must enter this long-neglected field, and a call is now before the Mission Board for two families to locate among the millions of the Telegu country.

After two days' and three nights' travel, Trichinopoli was reached, the city where Brethren James and Peugh are living, and which is now the headquarters of the southern branch of the tract society. These brethren joined me here for the last two hundred miles of the journey. The last twenty-four miles were made by bullock cart, which takes from nine to twelve hours. The purpose of our visit to this station at this time was to hold a colporteurs' and workers' institute. It was the time of the regular school vacation, so an opportune time for such a meeting.

The seven Tamil colporteurs had been in the field since the institute held last July, and they had all gathered for further help and study. More than twenty workers were present, representing the various lines of work being carried forward in that field. The nearly three weeks spent at that station were busy ones. Four regular meetings were held daily, besides many for counsel, the first one coming at seven o'clock in the morning and the last one at seven fifteen in the evening, at which time a service was held for the general public. Usually about one hundred were present at this meeting. On the last Sabbath of our stay there, just before sundown, eighteen persons were buried with their Lord in baptism. That evening we all gathered in our schoolhouse, which is also used as a place of worship, and celebrated the ordinances of the Lord's house. It was a cause of rejoicing to see such a nice company of Tamil believers joining in this beautiful service. Nearly seventy have thus far been baptized in connection with our work there.

The following day the colporteurs left for their various fields, and reports since received show that they returned to do more successful work. On Monday morning the school reopened, and we remained a few days to counsel further regarding the work in the southern division of our union field, and to plan for the carrying forward of the same during the time that Elder James is away. It seems that we can scarcely see him leave us at this time, but we realize that he and Sister James are greatly in need of a change and rest after more than six years of strenuous labor in the field, the greater part of this time being spent in the extreme heat of south India, which has told very materially on their strength. Labor under the best of conditions in these tropical lands is hard and wearing, and where one sees so much to be done with so few to do it, he is liable to go beyond his strength, making it necessary to rest awhile. May the Lord richly bless these workers as they return to the home land for a season, and may he so use them there in presenting the needs of this great field that many will be led to consecrate their means and lives to the work in this land. I believe that there is a bright future before the work in south India. Pray for the work and workers here.