NICODEMUS manifested great surprise when Jesus told him that a man must be born again before he could see the kingdom of God. John 3:3. The ideas which he had of what man would be in the everlasting kingdom and of the life which would endow him there are not told in the narrative that John has given, but it is certain that there was, and is, great need of instruction upon this vital theme of man's salvation. It is impossible to have consultation with a man about his fleshly birth before he is born; but he can desire and seek to be born of the Spirit, and, also, present conditions give him opportunity to choose his own eternal destiny.
The Lord pleadingly invites men to make a right choice, saying, “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” He then says, “If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat of the good of the land.” Isa. 1:18, 19. Not one is forced to accept, nor will a soul ever be denied, the right to become a son or a daughter of God. For it is said, “As many as received him [Jesus], to them gave he power [or the privilege] to become the sons of God.” John 1:12. And he said that those who received him “were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” John 1:13. Here is a birth, and a life is given, where flesh and blood have not operated in its generation, but God has wrought through a divine agency.
The Holy Spirit works the divine word into the yielded mind of man, imparting light and hope to his receptive faculties, so that the man who believes is born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God which liveth and abideth forever. 1 Peter 1:25. And again it is written: “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.” 1 John 5:1. The word used as a means in the new birth is that incorruptible seed which will “live” and “abide forever,” and, dear reader, this “is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.” 1 Peter 1:25. It is the simple, but blessed “everlasting gospel” through the Eternal Spirit that is the power of God unto salvation. Paul says God's word “is living, and active, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Heb. 4:12, A. R. V. Christ says of the words which he speaks, that “they are spirit, and they are life.” John 6:63. His words are spoken in truth and steadfastness, and will never pass away. By them the earth and the heavens were made, and through their infinite power all things consist. God's wonderful words of life are endowed with potency to generate a new man to take the place and live in the stead of a crucified sinner.
All teachings that he receives come to him through the new creation. His hopes, his aspirations, his most cherished plans, are all breathed into his mind by the Spirit of God, which controls his thoughts and actions. This new man is dead to the old man of the past, and is joined to Christ for time and for eternity, and is ever to remain “a new man.” If the change is genuine, the life that he now lives in the flesh he lives “by the faith of the Son of God.” Gal. 2:20. Having received divine life through the living word, he naturally, as a newborn babe, seeks to feed upon the milk of that word from which he received his life in order that he may grow strong and mature in the new life.
The word of God is more to him than his daily physical food, because through the word in the Spirit he feeds upon the living bread that comes down from heaven, and so is nourished by the very life of the Life-giver. A new birth connects the newly born creature with the life of the Lord, to be nourished and kept by him. In expressing this thought the apostle said, “Ye [Christians] are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, . . . and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” 2 Cor. 6:16-18.
The sacred relationship described in the foregoing citation, is a present reality known to none except those who have tasted of the spirit of sonship received through Jesus Christ.
Such can know by experience the truth of the divine word which declares, “Now are we the sons of God.” 1 John 3:2. They can also see the importance of yielding to the purifying process of the divine word and spirit until sin has been eliminated, and the divine likeness is manifested through them. The members of the church at Philippi were admonished and encouraged with the following impressive word from the great evangelist who taught and wrought for their salvation: “It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Do all things without murmurings and disputings: that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain.” Phil. 2:13-16.
Paul, with other gospel workers, went to Philippi, of Macedonia, under the guidance and call of the Holy Spirit, to preach the gospel of Christ to a people who were for the most part pagans. It appears that they began their labors with a company of Sabbath-keeping merchant women, but soon they were beaten and thrown into a Roman prison, with the happy result that the jailer and all his household were converted to Christianity, and were baptized. Thus the foundation of the church organization at Philippi was laid, and a strong company was raised up there for the Lord.
Here the fearless preaching of the gospel of Christ in the demonstration of the Spirit gathered many souls out of the dense darkness of paganism into the marvelous light of Christianity. And those who turned from idols to serve the true and living God became shining lights to guide many others into the living way.
The shining glory of this beautiful picture seems to have been in the mind of Paul when he wrote of these things to the Philippians. If the gospel in Paul's day could gather out jewels for God's kingdom from the Greek and Roman pagans of that day, the same gospel, when preached with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, can gather in genuine converts from the heathen of this time. Yes: it is bearing fruit to-day. Souls are being born again wherever the gospel of God's everlasting kingdom is being preached, and it will continue to accomplish this glorious work unto the end of the world.
Chicago, Ill.
The Richest Fifty-One in the United States
[The subjoined article is a remarkable comment upon the statements made in James 5: 1-3. It is taken from the speech of Hon. Jeff Davis, of Arkansas, in the Senate of the United States, Dec. 11, 1907.—ED.]
When the average present-day millionaire is bluntly asked to name the value of his earthly possessions, he finds it difficult to answer the question correctly. It may be that he is not willing to take the questioner into his confidence. It is doubtful whether he really knows.
If this is true of the millionaire himself, it follows that when others attempt the task of estimating the amount of his wealth, the results must be conflicting. Still, excellent authorities are not lacking on this subject, and the list of the richest fifty-one persons in the United States has been satisfactorily compiled.
The following list is taken from Munsey’s Scrap Book for June, 1906, and is a fair presentation of the property owned by fifty-one of the very richest men of the United States.
NAME
TOTAL FORTUNE
John D. Rockefeller
$600,000,000
Andrew Carnegie
300,000,000
W. W. Astor
300,000,000
J. Pierpont Morgan
150,000,000
William Rockefeller
100,000,000
H. H. Rogers
100,000,000
W. K. Vanderbilt
100,000,000
Senator Clark
100,000,000
John Jacob Astor
100,000,000
Russell Sage
80,000,000
H. C. Frick
80,000,000
D. O. Mills
75,000,000
Marshall Field, jr.
75,000,000
Henry M. Flagler
60,000,000
J. J. Hill
60,000,000
John D. Archbold
50,000,000
Oliver Payne
50,000,000
J. B. Haggin
50,000,000
Harry Field
50,000,000
James Henry Smith
40,000,000
Henry Phipps
40,000,000
Alfred G. Vanderbilt
40,000,000
H. O. Havemeyer
40,000,000
Mrs. Hetty Green
40,000,000
Thomas F. Ryan
40,000,000
Mrs. W. Walker
35,000,000
George Gould
35,000,000
J. Ogden Armour
30,000,000
E. T. Gerry
30,000,000
Robert W. Goelet
30,000,000
J. H. Flagler
30,000,000
Claus Spreckels
30,000,000
W. F. Havemeyer
30,000,000
Jacob H. Schiff
25,000,000
P. A. B. Widener
25,000,000
George F. Baker
25,000,000
August Belmont
20,000,000
James Stillman
20,000,000
John W. Gates
20,000,000
Norman B. Ream
20,000,000
Joseph Pulitzer
20,000,000
James G. Bennett
20,000,000
John G. Moore
20,000,000
D. G. Reid
20,000,000
Frederick Pabst
20,000,000
William D. Sloane
20,000,000
William B. Leeds
20,000,000
James P. Duke
20,000,000
Anthony N. Brady
20,000,000
George W. Vanderbilt
20,000,000
Fred W. Vanderbilt
20,000,000
Total .................. $3,295,000,000
It will thus be seen that fifty-one persons in the United States, with a population of nearly 90,000,000 people, own approximately one thirty-fifth of the entire wealth of the United States. The Statistical Abstract of the United States, 29th number, 1906, prepared under the direction of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor of the United States, gives the estimated value of all property in the United States for that year at $107,104,211,917.
Each of the favored fifty-one owns a wealth of somewhat more than $64,600,000, while each of the remaining 89,999,950 people get $1,100. Not one of these fifty-one owns less than $20,000,000, and no one on the average owns less than $64,600,000. Men owning from $1,000,000 to $20,000,000 are no longer called rich men. There are approximately 4,000 millionaires in the United States, but the aggregate of their holdings is difficult to obtain. If all their holdings be deducted from the total true value of all the property in the United States, the average share of each of the other 89,995,000 people would be less than $500.
John Jacob Astor is reputed to have been the first American millionaire, although this is a matter impossible to decide. It is also claimed that Nicholas Longworth, of Cincinnati, the great grandfather of Congressman Longworth, was the first man west of the Alleghany Mountains to amass a million. It is difficult to prove either one of these propositions, but they prove that the age of the millionaire in the United States is of a comparatively recent thing. In 1870 to own a single million was to be a very rich man; in 1890 it required at least $10,000,000, while to-day a man with a single million or even ten millions is not in the swim. To be enumerated as one of the world’s richest men, you must own not less than $20,000,000.
An Important Document
By Editor
[The epistle of the Emperor Justinian was a decisive factor in establishing the authority of the papacy. It is here given first in the original Latin and then in an English translation.—Ed.]
Epist. Justiniani ad Joannem Rom. Pont., A. D. 533
REDDENTES honorem apostolicae sedi et vestrae sanctitati (quod semper nobis in voto et fuit et est) ut decet patrem honorantes vestram beatudinem, omnia quae ad Ecclesiae statum pertinent, festinavimus ad notitiam deferre vestrae sanctitatis: quoniam semper nobis fuit magnum studium, unitatem vestrae, apostolicae sedis et statum sanctarum Dei Ecclesiarum custodire, qui hactenus obtinet et incommote permanet, nulla intercedente contrarietate. Ideoque omnes sacerdotes universi Orientalis tractus et subjicere et unire vestrae sanctitati properavimus. In presenti ergo quae commota sunt, quamvis manifesta et indubita sint, et secundum apostolicae vestrae sedis doctrinam ab omnibus semper sacerdotibus firme custodita et praedicata: necessarium duximus ut ad notitiam vestrae sanctitatis perveniant. Nec enim patimur quicquam quod ad Ecclesiarum statum pertinet, quamvis manifestum et indubitatum sit quod movetur, ut non etiam vestrae innotescat sanctitati, quae caput est omnium sanctarum Ecclesiarum. Per omnia enim (ut dictum est) properamus honorem et auctoritatem crescere vestrae sedis.—Baronii Annales Ecclesiastici, tom VII, p. 204, Ed. Antverpiae, 1758.
The Epistle of Justinian to John, the Roman Pontiff, A. D. 533
Rendering honor to the apostolic see, and to your holiness (as always was and is our desire), and, as it becomes us, honoring your Blessedness as a father, we have laid without delay before the notice of your holiness, all things pertaining to the state of the church: Since it has always been our earnest study to preserve the unity of your holy see, and the state of the holy churches of God, which has hitherto obtained, and will remain, without any interfering opposition. Therefore we hasten to subject and to unite to your holiness, all the priests of the whole East. As to the matters which are presently agitated, although clear and undoubted, and, according to the doctrine of your apostolic see, held assuredly resolved and decided by all priests, we have yet deemed it necessary to lay them before your holiness. Nor do we suffer any thing which belongs to the state of the church, however manifest and undoubted, that is agitated, to pass without the knowledge of your holiness, who are the head of all the holy churches. For in all things (as has been said or resolved) we are prompt to increase the honor and authority of your see.—The Ecclesiastical History of Baronius, Vol. VII, page 204, Antwerp Edition, 1758.
The Rise of the Papacy
The first step in the rise of the papacy therefore was necessarily the complete downfall of the Western Empire of Rome, which, as we have seen, took place under Romulus Augustus, A. D. 476. From that time forth the claims of the bishops of Rome increased continually, based at first on the metropolitan character of the see of Rome, and by degrees on more supernatural and spiritual grounds. But their claims to supremacy over other bishops received no legal sanction until A. D. 533, when, by his celebrated decretal letters, the Eastern Roman Emperor, Justinian, recognized the bishop of Rome as “head of all the holy churches, and all the holy priests of God.” “The Approaching End of the Age,” by H. Gratton Guinness, Fourth Edition, London, 1880, pages 374, 375.
What Would You Take?
By Mrs. T. D. Prosser
WHAT would you take for that soft little head
Pressed close to your face at time for bed;
For that white, dimpled hand in your own held tight,
And the dear little eyelids kissed down for the night?
What would you take?
What would you take for that smile in the morn,
Those bright dancing eyes, and the face they adorn;
For the sweet little voice that you hear all day
Laughing ’nd cooing—yet nothing to say?
What would you take?
What would you take for those pink little feet,
Those round, chubby cheeks and that mouth so sweet;
For the wee, tiny fingers, and little soft toes,
That wrinkly neck, and that queer little nose?
Now, what would you take?
—Mrs. T. D. Prosser, in Good Housekeeping.
Showing Hospitality
The Bible lays much stress upon the practise of hospitality. Not only does it enjoin hospitality as a duty, but it presents many beautiful pictures of the exercise of this grace and the blessings which it brings. Foremost among these is the experience of Abraham.
In the records of Genesis we see the patriarch at the hot summer noon-tide resting in his tent door under the shadow of the oaks of Mamre. Three travelers are passing near. They make no appeal for hospitality, solicit no favor; but Abraham does not permit them to go on their way unrefreshed.
. . . With his own hands he brought water that they might wash the dust of travel from their feet. He himself selected their food, while they were at rest under the cooling shade. Sarah, his wife, made ready for their entertainment, and Abraham stood respectfully beside them while they partook of his hospitality. This kindness he showed them simply as wayfarers, passing strangers, who might never come his way again. But the entertainment over, his guests stood revealed. He had ministered not only to heavenly angels, but to their glorious Commander,—his Creator, Redeemer, and King. And to Abraham the counsels of heaven were opened, and he was called “the friend of God.”
Lot, Abraham’s nephew, though he had made his home in Sodom, was imbued with the patriarch’s spirit of kindness and hospitality. Seeing at nightfall two strangers at the city gate, and knowing the dangers sure to beset them in that wicked city, Lot insisted on bringing them to his home. To the peril that might result to himself and his household he gave no thought. It was a part of his life-work to protect the imperiled and to care for the homeless, and the deed performed in kindness to two unknown travelers brought angels to his home. Those whom he sought to protect, protected him. At nightfall he had led them for safety to his door; at the dawn they led him and his household forth in safety from the gate of the doomed city.
These acts of courtesy God thought of sufficient importance to record in his Word; and more than a thousand years later they were referred to by an inspired apostle: “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers; for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” Heb. 13:2.
The privilege granted Abraham and Lot is not denied to us. By showing hospitality to God’s children we, too, may receive his angels into our dwellings. Even in our day, angels in human form enter the homes of men, and are entertained by them. And Christians who live in the light of God’s countenance are always accompanied by unseen angels, and these holy beings leave behind them a blessing in our homes. . . .
These admonitions have been strangely neglected. Even among those who profess to be Christians, true hospitality is little exercised. Among our own people the opportunity of showing hospitality is not regarded as it should be, as a privilege and blessing. There is altogether too little sociability, too little of a disposition to make room for two or three more at the family board, without embarrassment or parade. Some plead that “it is too much trouble.” It would not be if you would say, “We have made no special preparation, but you are welcome to what we have.” By the unexpected guest a welcome is appreciated far more than is the most elaborate preparation.
It is a denial of Christ to make preparation for visitors which requires time that rightly belongs to the Lord. In this we commit robbery of God. And we wrong others as well. In preparing an elaborate entertainment, many deprive their own families of needed attention, and their example leads others to follow the same course.
Needless worries and burdens are created by the desire to make a display in entertaining visitors. In order to prepare a great variety for the table, the housewife overworks; because of the many dishes prepared, the guests overeat; and disease and suffering, from overwork on the one hand and overeating on the other, is the result. These elaborate feasts are a burden and an injury. . . .
God is displeased with the selfish interest so often manifested for “me and my family.” Every family that cherishes this spirit needs to be converted by the pure principles exemplified in the life of Christ. Those who shut themselves up within themselves, who are unwilling to be drawn upon to entertain visitors, lose many blessings. . . .
Those who travel from place to place as evangelists or missionaries in any line, should receive hospitality from the members of the churches among whom they may labor. Brethren and sisters, make a home for these workers, even if it be at considerable personal sacrifice.
Christ keeps an account of every expense incurred in entertaining for his sake. He supplies all that is necessary for this work. Those who for Christ’s sake entertain their brethren, doing their best to make the visit profitable, both to their guests and to themselves, are recorded in heaven as worthy of special blessings.
Christ has given in his own life a lesson of hospitality. When surrounded by the hungry multitude beside the sea, he did not send them unrefreshed to their homes. He said to his disciples, “Give ye them to eat.” Matt. 14:16. And by an act of creative power he supplied food sufficient to satisfy their need. Yet how simple was the food provided! There were no luxuries. He who had all the resources of heaven at his command could have spread for the people a rich repast. But he supplied only that which would suffice for their need, that which was the daily food of the fisher folk about the sea. . . .
And while he fed them with the barley loaves, he gave them also to eat of the bread of life. Here is our example. Our fare may be plain, and even scanty. Our lot may be shut in with poverty. Our resources may be no greater than were those of the disciples with the five loaves and the two fishes. Yet as we come in contact with those in need, Christ bids us, “Give ye them to eat.” We are to impart of that which we have; and as we give, Christ will see that our lack is supplied. . . .
To his faithful servants to-day as well as to his first disciples Christ’s words apply, “He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.” No act of kindness done in his name will fail to be recognized and rewarded. And in the same tender recognition Christ includes even the feeblest and lowliest of the family of God. “Whosoever shall give to drink,” he says, “unto one of these little ones,”—those who are as children in their faith and their knowledge of14Christ,—“a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.”
Poverty need not shut us out from showing hospitality. We are to impart what we have. There are those who struggle for a livelihood, and who have great difficulty in making their income meet their necessities; but they love Jesus in the person of his saints, and are ready to show hospitality to believers and unbelievers, trying to make their visits profitable. At the family board and the family altar the guests are made welcome. The season of prayer makes its impression on those who receive entertainment, and even one visit may mean the saving of a soul from death. For this work the Lord makes a reckoning, saying, “I will repay.”
Brethren and sisters, invite to your homes those who are in need of entertainment and kindly attention. Make no parade, but as you see their necessity, take them in, and show them genuine Christian hospitality. There are precious privileges in social intercourse.
“Man doth not live by bread alone,” and as we impart to others our temporal food, so we are to impart hope and courage and Christlike love. We are to “comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.” 2 Cor. 1:4. And the assurance is ours, “God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.”
We are in a world of sin and temptation; all around us are souls perishing out of Christ; and God wants us to labor for them in every way possible. If you have a pleasant home, invite to it the youth who have no home, those who are in need of help, who long for sympathy and kind words, for respect and courtesy. If you desire to bring them to Christ, you must show your love and respect for them as the purchase of his blood.
In the providence of God we are associated with those who are inexperienced, with many who need pity and compassion. They need succor; for they are weak. Young men need help. In the strength of Him whose loving-kindness is exercised toward the helpless, the ignorant, and those counted as the least of his little ones, we must labor for their future welfare, for the shaping of Christian character. The very ones who need help the most will at times try our patience sorely. “Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones,” Christ says; “for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.” Matt. 18:10. And to those who minister to these souls, the Saviour declares, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” Matt. 25:40.
The brows of those who do this work will wear the crown of sacrifice. But they will receive their reward. In heaven we shall see the youth whom we helped, those whom we invited to our homes, whom we led from temptation. We shall see their faces reflecting the radiance of the glory of God. “They shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.” Rev. 22:4.—“Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. VI.
God’s Care
THE late D. L. Moody once told of a man who enlisted in the war and left a wife and two children. One cold day in November, in the first year of the war, news came that he was shot in battle, and the mother was in great sorrow. Sometime after, the landlord came for his rent, and she told him her trouble, and said she would not be able to pay the rent as regularly as before, as she had only her needle by which she could obtain a livelihood. Sewing-machines were just coming in then, but as she could not buy one, she had a very poor chance. The man said that if she did not pay the rent regularly, he would put her out. After he went away, the mother began to weep. Her child, not quite five, came up to her and said:—
“Mama, is God very rich?”
“Yes, my child.”
“Can’t God take care of us?”
“Then what makes you cry? Mayn’t I go and ask him?”
The mother said that she might if she liked. The little child knelt at her cradle bed, where the mother taught her to pray, and the mother said the child never looked so sweet. She stood weeping over her misfortunes, and the child knelt and said: “O Lord, you have given and taken away dear father, and the landlord says he will turn us out of doors, and my mama has no money. Won’t you lend us a little house to live in?” And then she came out to her mother and said: “Mama, don’t weep. Jesus will take care of us. I know he will, for I have asked him.”
It is upward of twenty years, and that mother has never paid any rent from that day to this. A beautiful cottage was provided for her and her two children, and she has lived there without paying any rent. When the fire swept over Chicago and burned up her house, a second little home was put up for her, and there she is.—Selected.
HELEN A STEINHAUER
By Helen A Steinhauer
Don’t
HELEN A STEINHAUER
Don’t what?
Don’t make old people feel as if they were “back numbers,” and therefore not wanted.
Don’t shut them out of your lives and your homes as if they were intruding. Remember that if they have kept their hearts green, they still take the liveliest interest in the young people whom they have been permitted to see grow up into useful manhood and womanhood.
Don’t forget how their pathways have narrowed, and their lives been shadowed by the dropping of their contemporaries out of the race, leaving them almost alone, and — O! so lonely.
Don’t forget that if time lasts, you, too, will grow old and crave just what you are withholding from them. Therefore now do as you then would fain be done by, and see if you as well as they are not happier for so doing.
Believe me, this course of action pays!
Battle Creek, Mich.
“A Mighty Rich Man”
ONCE in New England I was driving with an old farmer, and some of the men of the neighborhood came under criticism. Speaking of a prominent man in the village, I asked, “Is he a man of means?”
“Well, sir,” the old farmer replied, “he ain’t got much money, but he’s mighty rich.”
“He has a deal of land, then?” I asked.
“No, sir, he ain’t got much land neither, but still he’s mighty rich.”
The old farmer saw my puzzled look, and said: “You see, sir, he ain’t got much money, and he ain’t got much land, but he is rich, because he never went to bed owing any man a cent in all his life. He lives as well as he wants to live, and he pays as he goes; he don’t owe anything, and he ain’t afraid of anybody; and does his duty by himself, his family, and his neighbors; his word is as good as a bond, and every man, woman, and child in town looks up to and respects him. No, sir, he ain’t got much money, and he ain’t got much land, but still he is a mighty rich man, because he’s got all he needs and all he wants.”—Selected.
The Upward Climb
Not all ascents are followed by descents. Some mountains have only one side. “The road continued up, up,” writes a traveler in Persia, “the gorge became narrower until we could cross it by a short bridge, and then wound from ridge to ridge across the top of the mountain. The view was grand. As far as the eye could see were the crests of the mountains; between, the beginning of valleys and river courses. There were so few trees that the whole configuration was spread out before us. Finally the horses began to go a little easier, and we knew we were over the top, but there was no going down on the other side of the mountain. Before us stretched out a wide, almost level plain, sloping away very gently from the crest we had crossed. In sixty miles we had ascended forty-five hundred feet, but in the next one hundred seventy miles did not descend seven hundred feet. It gives one a queer sensation after spending so much time climbing a mountain not to go down on the other side.” This is life. The heights which we scale we keep. Life is not meant to be up and down, but up and up; and beyond the steep ascent lie the table-lands of God.—S. S. Times.
W. A. BARLOW
By W. A. Barlow
Santalia and the Santals—No. 6
W. A. BARLOW
Costume
The costume worn by the women is the sari, a piece of cotton cloth about a yard wide, and, if she can afford it, six yards long, wrapped around the waist like a skirt, thrown over one shoulder, brought under the opposite armpit, and fastened at the side. The men, when at work, wear only a waist-cloth, but when visiting friends or going to market, they wear a cloth thrown over the shoulders like a plaid. The women are very fond of brass ornaments, worn on the fingers, wrists, arms, neck, ankles, and toes, and usually wear flowers in their hair, which is well smeared with oil. It is not at all uncommon for a Santal girl on a gala or mela day to wear ornaments weighing altogether more than fourteen pounds.
The Occupation of the Santals
The occupation of the Santals is almost exclusively agriculture. The work in which they excel is that of reclaiming jungle land. Selecting some remote spot in the jungle, where no one but themselves could live, they begin to clear the forest, plowing among the stones, and eking out their scanty living by hunting and gathering wild berries. Once his land has become arable and worth cultivating, the Santal is apt to fall into the clutches of the wily Hindu money lender who advances him money, say at the rate of three hundred per cent, and then seizes his land in payment; or the rent, which was at first nominal, is increased by the landlord. The Santal, often too ignorant to see through the wiles of the money lender, and too poor to fight against his landlord in court, flits by moonlight to some still more remote region, to begin the laborious process over again, reclaiming land for the benefit of the landlord, tilling fields to fatten the money lender. There is always at least one family of blacksmiths in a good-sized Santal village, who make agricultural implements and arrowheads out of the country iron, often receiving as payment the weight of the tool in rice or some other grain. They are not Santals, but Kols or Kamars. The latter were nominally Hindus, one of the “semi-Hinduized aboriginal” tribes, but in many cases they have lived among the Santals for many generations, and speak the language as their own.
Education
It may be inferred, from what has already been said, that education, in the usual sense of the term, is at a low ebb among the Santals. Their instincts and ambitions are not literary.
“Iron jointed, supple-sinew’d, they shall drive, and they shall run, Catch the wild goat by the hair, and hurl their lances in the sun; Whistle back the parrot’s call, and leap the rainbows of the brooks, Not with blinded eyesight poring over miserable books.”
That still represents the Santal’s idea of juvenile happiness. In the census returns they hold a high place among the illiterates. Out of every 1,000 males 994, out of every 1,000 females 1,000, were returned as unable to read or write in 1901. Apart from Christianity, they are in this respect making very little progress. Although they have no desire to keep abreast of the march of civilization, numerically they more than hold their own. During the ten years from 1891 to 1901 they increased by twenty-four and one-half per cent, while the increase in the entire population of Bengal was only four per cent for the same period. Although they are mingling more than they formerly did with other people, and are inclined to imitate the social and religious customs of the Hindus, neither the race nor the language show any signs of dying out. Both, in fact, appear to be exceptionally virile.
NATIVES OF INDIA SAWING LUMBER
‘The Santal Rebellion’
The most important event in the recent history of the Santals, an event which brought them into prominence and attracted the attention of the government of India to them, was the rebellion in 1855, two years before the great mutiny. Exasperated beyond the limits of endurance by the exactions of the Hindu money lenders, and alarmed by threats of imprisonment for debt, they rose in a body, twenty thousand strong, armed with their ancestral weapons, bows and arrows, determined to march to Calcutta to lay their grievances before the governor-general. They were badly advised, and at the instigation of two hot-headed leaders, Kanhu and Sido, whose names are still held in remembrance, they began to massacre Hindus indiscriminately, right and left, and a few Europeans also were slain. Troops were marched against them from Calcutta. Had a single official who could talk with them in their own tongue been sent instead, many lives and much money would have been saved; but probably there was no European in India in those days who could speak Santali. White-headed Santals still tell us of the deplorable bloodshed which followed. The Santals knew nothing of the rules of civilized warfare; called upon to surrender, they had not the slightest idea of what was meant. Places are still pointed out where they fought the unequal fight with their backs to the wall till not a man was left. They compelled the admiration of their foes. “They were,” wrote an officer who fought with them, “the most truthful set of men I ever met; brave to infatuation. A lieutenant of mine had once to shoot down seventy-five men before their drums ceased, and the party fell back.” Their wrongs, however, were then fully inquired into, and within a certain tract of country they were placed under special legislative protection. Among the older generation of Santals everything still dates from the hul, as they call the rebellion. The nearest approximation a very old man can give to his age is to tell you how many children he had at the time. In many respects it marked the beginning of a new epoch in the history of the Santals.
“From her night shall China wake;
Afric’s sons their chains shall break;
Egypt, where Thy people trod, shall adore and praise our God.
India’s groves of palm so fair shall resound with praise and prayer;
Ceylon’s isle with joy shall sing, ‘Glory be to Christ our King!’”
