Signs of the Times, Vol. 42, No. 28. (7/20/1915)

Signs of the Times

Jul 20, 1915

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jul 20, 1915

Progress of Education in India

By Arthur G. Daniells

What the British Empire Has Done—The Missionary and His Schools—The Evangelist and the Doctor at Work—Encouraging Progress

By ARTHUR G. DANIELLS

Pastor G. W. Pettit, superintendent of our Bombay mission, and his wife.

The city of Bombay is the headquarters of our work on the west coast of India. On our way to this city from South India, we spent a day in the city of Madras.

STRONG EDUCATIONAL WORK

To me the most interesting feature of Madras is the work carried on by the government and the missionary societies for the education of India's young people. One cannot visit such centers as Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta without being favorably impressed with England's endeavors to give the millions of India educational advantages. It is a stupendous task. India had no system of education for the masses when she came fully under the rule of Great Britain in 1858. Such education as was given could be secured by only a few, while the great masses were left in a shocking state of illiteracy.

MANY COLLEGES AND OTHER SCHOOLS

As soon as England assumed the full responsibilities of the government of India, she introduced a modern, useful, up-to-date educational system. Steady progress has attended this department of government, until now India has five universities, 176 arts and professional colleges, 3,285 secondary schools, and 102,947 elementary schools. In addition to these, the government gives financial aid to thousands of private and mission schools.

The total number of students in all these schools is about eight million. This, of course, is a pitifully small portion of the millions of India's children. Yet it is a vast improvement over the condition that prevailed half a century ago. When we consider all the obstacles surmounted, this is a good showing.

KALYAN MISSION SCHOOL.—When Elder Daniells visited this school, the teacher had these children sing a Christian hymn, and repeat the Lord’s Prayer and a psalm.

THE MISSIONARY AS AN EDUCATOR

But whatever credit may be due the British government for the work it is now doing along educational lines in India, the early missionaries to this country were the ones who began this good work, and the many missionary societies now operating in India are still doing a most commendable work in behalf of the education of the people.

A century ago, William Carey founded an institution at Serampur. To-day the various missionary societies are conducting 15,000 schools, in which more than 500,000 pupils are receiving some measure of education. These schools are divided as follows: 38 colleges, with an attendance of 5,500 students; 87 theological schools, with 1,850 students; 127 training schools, with an attendance of 21,000; 283 high schools, having 61,000 students; 880 boarding schools, 40,000 pupils; 160 industrial schools, giving 9,000 young people a practical training; and 13,000 elementary schools, which are molding the 446,500 children and youth attending them.

It is a great and imperishable work the Christian church is doing in this one line of endeavor in India. In most of these schools, “the Bible is extolled, and its truths are held in highest reverence by teachers and by missionaries, and they thus become of supreme value to the young pupils.” Thus hundreds of thousands of India's children are receiving what is meant to be a Christian education.

On our arrival at Bombay, we were met by Pastor George W. Pettit and wife, formerly from Oregon; Pastor W. R. French, from Texas; and Sister R. E. Boose, from Iowa. We had known these dear fellow workers in the home land, and were happy

to find them looking well, and thoroughly interested in their work.

TWENTY-FIVE MILLION CANNOT READ

Pastor Pettit is superintendent of the Bombay mission. The territory of this mission lies along the eastern shore of the Arabian Sea. It is one thousand miles long, with an average width of about one hundred miles. The population of this district is twenty-seven million.

Two principal languages are spoken by these people,—the Marathi by eighteen million, and the Gujarati by nine million. To a visitor from a land of general education, it seems appalling that less than two millions of this great mass of humanity can read and write. It is hard to imagine what must be the life of twenty-five millions of people, in this age of enlightenment, who cannot read a line in their own tongue. We need not say that this state of illiteracy greatly adds to the already difficult task of Protestant missionaries.

Twenty-one millions of the people in the Bombay mission are Hindus, five millions are Mohammedans, one half million are Jains, eighty thousand are Zoroastrians, one hundred and fifty thousand are Roman Catholics, and fifty thousand are Protestants.

A BEAUTIFUL, UP-TO-DATE CITY

Bombay is the principal city in this mission, having a population of one million. As regards population, institutions of learning, beautiful residences, large, up-to-date public buildings and business blocks, wide, clean streets, sanitation, etc., it ranks among the best cities of India. We were glad to find an aggressive evangelistic work carried on in this important center. Our workers have secured the exclusive use of an excellent hall in a good location.

We had the privilege of meeting with our brethren and sisters on the Sabbath, and of speaking to a full house of interested people Sunday night.

Although this effort in Bombay has been in progress only a little more than a year, fifteen new believers have been baptized, and a church of twenty-five members has been organized. The interest is growing, and the workers are following up every avenue, with the fullest confidence that God will give them a strong, useful church in that city.

AT THE BOTTOM OF HEATHEN SUPERSTITION

We spent a day at Panwel, where our missionaries A. G. Kelsey and wife, from Michigan, are in charge of a station. This is a large village thirty-five miles from Bombay, but only sixteen miles from the railway. My heart was touched by the devotion, self-sacrifice, and courage of these dear workers. They are working in the midst of as dense, dark heathenism as exists anywhere in India. After looking around the village, I asked the brethren if there was anywhere in India a lower stratum of human existence, and I was relieved by their assurance that there was not.

A Group of Native Workers and Believers at Our Kalyan Mission

Here we are working at the very bottom of heathen superstition and degradation as it exists in India. Although British influence has been established in Bombay since 1661, and missionaries have been working in the city for nearly a century, yet no missionary effort has ever been made in the region of Panwel.

Here we are conducting a day school for the children of the village. The attendance averages fifty, of about an equal number of boys and girls. Of course, they are all heathen, but the teachers are constantly endeavoring to give them the light of the gospel. Two Christian native teachers are employed to assist in this work. Recently two converts were baptized at this mission.

Sister Kelsey had just opened a neat little dispensary. This was greatly needed, and they hope that their ministry of love to the suffering will draw the people to God's message of salvation. May the good hand of our God be with these dear workers in their difficult field!

A BUSY DOCTOR IN INDIA

Another day was spent at the Kalyan mission, with Pastor and Mrs. M. D. Wood and their helpers. This place is on the railway line, forty miles from Bombay. The people here are like those of Panwel—enshrouded in the darkest heathenism. Ours is the first Christian mission ever established in Kalyan.

It was a great pleasure to meet again Pastor and Mrs. Wood and their associate workers. They have a large work on their hands, which taxes their strength to the utmost. Here we have one of the largest and best organized medical dispensaries in all our mission fields. It was opened in February, 1913.

We reached Kalyan early enough in the morning to see the work of the day start. There was a great crowd waiting for the doors to open. Before beginning the medical work of the day the missionaries gathered as many as possible in the large waiting room. A native brother connected with the mission then read a Scripture lesson, gave them a twenty-minute talk about the gospel, and offered an earnest prayer for them. Most of them paid the closest attention to all that was said. Then the dispensary work began. Between fifty and seventy-five persons received attention that day. Some were disposed of in a few minutes, while others were in a serious condition, needing the most thorough, skillful treatment.

In a register specially printed for our dispensaries in India, a record is kept, showing the name, age, sex, religion, disease, etc., of every person who passes through the dispensary. In glancing over the register, I gleaned the following: number of patients treated during 1914, 16,421; visits to homes, 978; villages represented, 85; minor surgical cases, 312; different diseases, from sore throat to leprosy, 26; gospel talks, 312; pages of literature distributed, 11,820; expenditure, $375; receipts, $482.

Every detail of the work is so well arranged, and all the assistants know so well the part they have to do, that a large number of patients can be treated every day, week after week. Besides the work at the main dispensary, the workers itinerate in the villages near, and one day in the week they do dispensary work in a large town about sixty miles away. A free pass is granted Sister Wood in a first-class compartment over the railway line, to do this work.

VILLAGES STILL UNTOUCHED

Pastor Wood has two schools in operation, with an attendance of forty. As he speaks the Marathi, he is able to preach to the people in the surrounding villages. He took me to a hill just out of Kalyan, from which we could see villages in all directions. In these were living millions of people without any knowledge of the gospel of salvation. No missionary efforts have ever yet been made for these lost souls. They have no schools, no doctors, no civilization. To me, the situation seemed terrible. But we have made a beginning, and our workers are hoping and praying that their ministry will lead many of these suffering, sorrowing people to Him who died for them. Our church at Kalyan now numbers fifteen, and the hearts of the workers are set on building up a large, strong center there.

The workers in our Kalyan dispensary. Pastor M. D. and Mrs. Dr. Wood in the center.

The two churches in this mission field have a membership of forty. In addition to the tithes paid by the missionaries, these churches pay an annual tithe of $2,000. They are also faithful in the matter of offerings for the support of the cause, and are active in home missionary work. The outlook is encouraging. This helps the workers to toil on with good heart.

Divine Possibilities in Every Life

By James Martineau

THERE is no human life so poor, so small, as not to hold many a divine possibility.—James Martineau.

Admiration and Love

“THERE is a wide difference between admiration and love.”

FOOLISHLY UNPREPARED

By Ellen G. White

Aroused When It Was Too Late—All Had the Same Opportunity, and Some Were Prepared—Application of the Mighty Object Lesson Is Just Before Christ's Coming

By MRS. E. G. WHITE

CHRIST with His disciples is seated upon the Mount of Olives. The sun has set behind the mountains, and the heavens are curtained with the shades of evening. In full view is a dwelling house, lighted up brilliantly, as if for some festive scene. The light streams from the openings, and an expectant company wait around, indicating that a marriage procession is soon to appear.

In many parts of the East, wedding festivities are held in the evening. The bridegroom goes forth to meet his bride and brings her to his home. By torchlight the bridal party proceed from her father's house to his own, where a feast is provided for the invited guests. In the scene upon which Christ looks, a company are awaiting the appearance of the bridal party, intending to join the procession.

Lingering near the bride's house are ten young women robed in white. Each carries a lighted lamp and a small flagon for oil. All are anxiously watching for the appearance of the bridegroom. But there is a delay. Hour after hour passes. The watchers become weary, and fall asleep. At midnight the cry is heard, “Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.” Matt. 25: 6. The sleepers, suddenly awaking, spring to their feet. They see the procession moving on, bright with torches and glad with music. They hear the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride. The ten maidens seize their lamps and begin to trim them, in haste to go forth. But five have neglected to fill their flasks with oil. They did not anticipate so long a delay, and they have not prepared for the emergency. In distress they appeal to their wiser companions, saying, “Give us of your oil; for our lamps are going out.” Verse 8, margin. But the waiting five, with their freshly trimmed lamps, have emptied their flagons. They have no oil to spare, and they answer, “Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.” Verse 9.

FOOLISHLY MISSED THEIR OPPORTUNITY

While they went to buy, the procession moved on, and left them behind. The five with lighted lamps joined the throng, and entered the house with the bridal train, and the door was shut. When the foolish virgins reached the banqueting hall, they received an unexpected denial. The master of the feast declared, “I know you not.” Verse 12. They were left standing without, in the empty street, in the blackness of the night. As Christ sat looking upon the party that waited for the bridegroom, He told His disciples the story of the ten virgins, by their experience illustrating the experience of the church that shall live just before His second coming.

THEY ARE ALL PROFESSORS

The two classes of watchers represent the two classes who profess to be waiting for their Lord. They are called virgins because they profess a pure faith. By the lamps is represented the word of God. The psalmist says, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” Ps. 119: 105. The oil is a symbol of the Holy Spirit.

In the parable, all the ten virgins went out to meet the bridegroom. All had lamps, and vessels for oil. For a time, there was seen no difference between them. So with the church that lives just before Christ's second coming. All have a knowledge of the Scriptures. All have heard the message of Christ's near approach, and confidently expect His appearing. But as in the parable, so it is now. A time of waiting intervenes, faith is tried; and when the cry is heard, “Behold, the Bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet Him,” many are unready. They have no oil in their vessels with their lamps. They are destitute of the Holy Spirit.

HAVE NEGLECTED THE SPIRIT

The class represented by the foolish virgins are not hypocrites. They have a regard for the truth, they have advocated the truth, they are attracted to those who believe the truth; but they have not yielded themselves to the Holy Spirit's working. They have not fallen upon the Rock, Christ Jesus, and permitted their old nature to be broken up. Their service to God degenerates into a form. This is the class that in time of peril are found crying, Peace and safety. They lull their hearts into security, and dream not of danger. When startled from their lethargy, they discern their destitution, and entreat others to supply their lack; but in spiritual things no man can make up another's deficiency. No man can impart to another the character which is the fruit of the Spirit's working. “Though Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it [the land], as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness.” Eze. 14: 20.

It is in a crisis that character is revealed. When the earnest voice proclaimed at midnight, “Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him,” and the sleeping virgins were roused from their slumbers, it was seen who had made preparation for the event. Both parties were taken unawares; but one was prepared for the emergency, and the other was found without preparation. So now, a sudden and unlooked-for calamity, something that brings the soul face to face with death, will show whether there is any real faith in the promises of God. It will show whether the soul is sustained by grace. The great final test comes at the close of human probation, when it will be too late for the soul's need to be supplied.

The ten virgins are watching in the evening of this earth's history. All claim to be Christians. All have a call, a name, a lamp, and all profess to be doing God's service. All apparently wait for Christ's appearing. But five are unready. Five will be found surprised, dismayed, outside the banquet hall.

At the final day, many will claim admission to Christ's kingdom, saying: “We have eaten and drunk in Thy presence, and Thou hast taught in our streets.” “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? and in Thy name have cast out devils? and in Thy name done many wonderful works?” But the answer is, “I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from Me.” Luke 13: 26, 27; Matt. 7: 22.

In this life, they have not entered into fellowship with Christ; therefore they know not the language of heaven, they are strangers to its joy. “What man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.” 1 Cor. 2: 11.

SADDEST OF ALL WORDS

Saddest of all words that ever fell on mortal ear are those words of doom, “I know you not.” The fellowship of the Spirit, which you have slighted, could alone make you one with the joyous throng at the marriage feast. In that scene you cannot participate. Its light would fall on blinded eyes, its melody upon deaf ears. Its love and joy could awake no chord of gladness in the world-benumbed heart. You are shut out from heaven by your own unfitness for its companionship.

We cannot be ready to meet the Lord by waking when the cry is heard, “Behold, the Bridegroom!” and then gathering up our empty lamps to have them replenished. We cannot keep Christ apart from our lives here, and yet be fitted for His companionship in heaven.

THEIR LIGHTS ARE TO HELP

In the parable, the wise virgins had oil in their vessels with their lamps. Their light burned with undimmed flame through the night of watching. It helped to swell the illumination for the bridegroom's honor. Shining out in the darkness, it helped to illuminate the way to the home of the bridegroom, to the marriage feast.

So the followers of Christ are to shed light into the darkness of the world. Through the Holy Spirit, God's word is a light as it becomes a transforming power in the life of the receiver. By implanting in their hearts the principles of His word, the Holy Spirit develops in men the attributes of God. The light of His glory—His character—is to shine forth in His followers. Thus they are to glorify God, to lighten the path to the Bridegroom's home, to the city of God, to the marriage supper of the Lamb.

COMES AT THE DARKEST HOUR

The coming of the bridegroom was at midnight,—the darkest hour. So the coming of Christ will take place in the darkest period of this earth's history. The days of Noah and Lot picture the condition of the world just before the coming of the Son of man.

The Scriptures pointing forward to this time declare that Satan will work with all power and “with all deceivableness of unrighteousness.” 2 Thess. 2: 10. His working is plainly revealed by the rapidly increasing darkness, the multitudinous errors, heresies, and delusions of these last days. Not only is Satan leading the world captive, but his deceptions are leavening the professed churches of our Lord Jesus Christ. The great apostasy will develop into darkness deep as midnight, impenetrable as sackcloth of hair. To God's people it will be a night of trial, a night of weeping, a night of persecution for the truth's sake. But out of that night of darkness God's light will shine.

CATCH THE FIRST LIGHT OF HIS COMING

“Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.” Isa. 60: 1. To those who go out to meet the Bridegroom is this message given. Christ is coming with power and great glory. He is coming with His own glory, and with the glory of the Father. He is coming with all the holy angels with Him. While all the world is plunged in darkness, there will be light in every dwelling of the saints. They will catch the first light of His second appearing. The unsullied light will shine from His splendor, and Christ the Redeemer will be admired by all who have served Him. While the wicked flee from His presence, Christ's followers will rejoice. The patriarch Job, looking down to the time of Christ's second advent, said, “Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not a stranger.” Job 19: 27, margin.

INTIMATE COMPANIONSHIP

To His faithful followers Christ has been a daily companion and familiar friend. They have lived in close contact, in constant communion with God. Upon them the glory of the Lord has risen. In the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ has been reflected. Now they rejoice in the undimmed rays of the brightness and glory of the King in His majesty. They are prepared for the communion of heaven, for they have heaven in their hearts.

With uplifted heads, with the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness shining upon them, with rejoicing that their redemption draweth nigh, they go forth to meet the Bridegroom, saying, “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us.” Isa. 25: 9.

“Give us of your oil; for our lamps are going out.”

THE PEACE TO COME

By Eliza H. Morton

I Kings 19:11-13

By ELIZA H. MORTON

A mighty wind swept down the mountain side— A strong and fearful blast. Great rocks were rent Asunder, and the echo of their fall Resounded far and near. But God, our God, Was not in that terrific gale. And, lo, An earthquake shook the hills, and made the trees Bow down, and tossed the dust into the air! But God, the One who made the earth, was not In that convulsive shock. And then a fire, Consuming all before its dreadful march, Came rushing o’er the land in flames Of lurid light. And yet the Lord, the Lord Of hosts, was not in that swift, awful blaze. But, lo, a voice, a still small voice was heard! It spoke unto the soul. It marked the way, And told the one who heard, just what to do.

And now when earth is darkened by the smoke Of war, when men are sacrificing all For naught; now when vile demons are abroad, And far and near are seeking for fresh blood, The world aghast is paralyzed with fear. The Lord is not in this dark carnage dire, The Lord is not the leader in the van. But hark! His voice is speaking to the soul— His still small voice. Beyond the strife of years, Beyond the wretchedness and woe, beyond The widows’ groans, beyond the orphans’ cry, Beyond the clash of weapons in the fray, There will be peace. The promise stands. The Prince Of peace will come, the kingdoms fall. The earth Will rise from ruin dread, to greet her King. All hail that day! All hail that gladsome day!

Christ’s Unselfish Life

“THE life of Christ upon earth was unselfish, marked with humiliation and sacrifice. And shall men, partakers of the great salvation which Jesus came from heaven to bring them, refuse to follow their Lord, and to share in His self-denial and sacrifice?”

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