St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-06-20
MISSIONARY TALK.
Tolls of the Great Work Among
the Santhals.

MlSS1ONARY TALK.
Tolls of the Great Work Among
the Santhals.
The audience that greeted Lars o.
Skrefsrud, 1.-THE apostle of the Santhals,"
when he mounted the platform of the
Auditorium last night. by all odds was
the largest one assembled at that place
during the annual meeting of the
United church.
Skrefsrud was not introduced, but
stepped to the front of the platform
alone and dug directly into his subject:
1.-The Santhal Mission" He gives the
impression of almost bonndless mental
and physical force, and his rich
voice penetrated to the remot-
est corner of the Auditorium.
He first gave brief history of the San
thals and their NEUROLOGICAL traditions.
which are highly interesting. The
Santhals belong to the Kawars, a large
tribe inhab1tlng Hindostan in common
with the Dravids long before the Him.
docs invaded the country. some 1000
years before Christ. The condition of
the Santhals at the arrival of refsrud
was certainly most deplorable, drunk
destructive vice. They were in the
habit Of sacrificing. not only animals,
but even men and women, and Skrefs-
rud had seen hundreds of them mutt
late. and sometimes kill themselves.
But they were i'll possession of one
good trait: They were truthful.
When Skrefsrud and Bornesen ar
rived at Santhalistan they had $50. The
situation looked so hopeless that they
prayed and prayed upon their knees
that God would grant them one single
convert. They called place where
they thus beseecked God "Ebenezer."
The language of the Santhals is re-
fined anG difficult one. the verbs having
no less than lwenty-three lenses. For
this reason the Bible can be translated
far more correctly into Santhali than
into any European language.
The first work of the missionaries
was to study the language and tiadi-
| lions. as we'll as the civilization of the
people in general. Their next point
was to connect the Christian religion
| with the scraps of truth in the religion
| of the Santhals. Sixteen months after
I the arrival OF the missionaries thre q
+ persons were converted, and these coli
| verts were alienated and outla wed by
their people. But they did not retail
| ate, they meekly submitted to all kinds
| of abuses and prayed for more converts.
7 The chief resolved to burn the mission
| aries when few more had been con-
/ verified. All avenues of escape were
| closed; but just one day before this
| plan was to have been executed, the
| British government arrested the chief
on the charge of & rave crime, and the
| lives of the missionaries were saved.
Upon his return year later his health
i m n hot
visited him. and promised to cure him
| If he was permitted to pray for the
! dying chief. The request was granted.
Skrefsrud prayed until he was thor
| oughly exhausted, and the chief recov-
| cred.
This marked a great turning point in
| the history. OF the Santhal mission. The
| Chief was converted and remained "a
| stone waiP' among the Christians until
he died about three months ago.
| A terrible famine gave the Christian
converts an opportunity to help those
| who had prosecuted them, and this
made profound impression upon the
population. and promoted the cause of
| Christianity to marked degree. The
Santhals were kept in auject poverty by
| HindoO money brokers. SkrefsrudeX-
| planned this to the viceroy of Bengal,
and laws were enacted prohibiting this
| abuse. This measure made Skrefsrud
SO popular that he was made chief of
! the SanthalS. which position he still
| holds.
Skrefsrud also proved himself prac.
teal man by establishing colony in
the wilderness of Northern Bengal for
the superfluous population of Santhali-
| stan.
| The colonists on their own account
have organized several churches among
| their heather neighbors.
Two years ago the work of a native
| preacher. Sifn. resulted in remarkable
| revival movement, and in the course of
eight months over 1000 Santhals were
converted.
Skrefsrud finally implored the Nor
wegian church people of America not
to try to inveigle him into their own in
ternal contentious and squabbles.
Sunday Rates to White Bear.
On Sunday next, June 23d. the St..
Paul & Duluth r. X. will sell round
trip excursion tickets to White Bear
Lake points at 25 cents, the tickets to
be good only on that day. This move
nent is In response to the popular de-
mand for low rates to this, the most
beautiful of st. Paul's pleasure resorts,
and will enable every one, Door as we'll
as rich. to spend the day out of the city.