The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1895-01-19
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Z1Ma,11 RE 1[yd::'ir:,
CHRISTIAN MISSIONS AS SEEN
BY A MISSIONARY.

as well as one who has 81 900 a month in
America" is very wide of the mark. Very
many missionaries receive much less than
500 month, but at the higher figure the
missionaries receive about third of the
salary of the chaplain next door, and one
fifth to one-tenth of the income of the sta
ton doctor He may have five or six ser
wants, but one Irish or Swedish girl in
America would do as much as the whole of
them, and-including board-will cost
about the same. While speaking of these
personal matters it may be as well to refer
to Mr.. Telang's accusation that the mis-
sionaries win their few Brahman converts
by Initiating them into meat-eating and
wine-drinking. | can easily understand
that Mr.. Telang made this charge with a
measure of confidence in its truth, for in
case of conversation such as he narrates all
manners Of incredible falsehoods are put
into circulation; but it is necessary only to
remark that nearly all missionaries are
total abstainers, and that the Brahmans
have no greater aversion to wine-drinking
than have the missionaries Some German
and a few English missionaries may not
have adopted the rule of abstinence but
among the Americans do not know of
single exception.
The American reader can hardly appre-
ciate Mr.. Telang's use of the word 'pariah"
in speaking of the convert that mission
airy took with him to preach in the bazaar.
Mr.. Telang applies the word ..''pariah'' to
the convert preacher no less than six times.
1t is a term which belongs to South India,
but since it has become angliczed it has
come into general use, and is often applied
by Europeans not only to the out-castes of
Southern India but to the meanest variety
The pariahs of Southern India form a part
of an immense division of the general conf
munity numbering about 90 OOn,O 600 souls,
or more than one-siXth of the whole popu-
laton. These 80, 900, 600 are divided into
many castles and sub-castes, and in recent
years the term depressed classes has been
scavengers to the more respectable artisans.
The whole 30, 900, GOO are below the line of
social responsibility; and, although legally
entitled to admission to the pulic schools.
their children are practically excluded from
them. Public sentiment would not tolerate
their presence. The condition of these
people is very hopeless, unless they can in
some way escape from the hard lot which
has fallen to them. Mr.. Tclang frankly
confesses that the hope and the help of
these lowly people is in Christianity. With
admirable candor, he says: ''Ihe structure
of Ilindoo society and religion is such help
for the pariah as the Christian missionary
has brought to him. But are these people
so very inferior in character and natural
ability to the higher castles? Those who
become Christians improve rapidly and ask
no odds Of the Brahmans or the Moham-
medians | have seen son of an ex-
tremely low outcaste preparing high caste
youths for university examinations
have seen hundreds of Christian youths,
whose parents had belonged to these classes
in school and college with Hindoo and
Mohanmedan boys, apparently on terms of
good fellowship, and successfully holding
their own in the keen competition of the
school-room. 1t ought not to he supposed
That all converts in India have come from
the lower classes. The Christian com
munity has won a recognized position III
the country, and in proportion to its num-
and French Christians, whose ancestors
became nominal Christians three centuries
a ;o-stands fully abreast of any other com
m unity in the country.
In forming an estimate of the native
Christian community in India, IA distinction
should always be drawn between the con.
verts of the modern missionary movement,
and the larger community of nominal
Christians whose ancestors more than two
centuries ago were, for the most part,
induced to become Christians under more
Or less pressure by the French the Dutch,
and especially the Portuguese authorities.
The hostile attitude toward missionaries
assumed and long maintained by the Eng
lish authorities in India was not creditable
either to their courage or foresight but
beyond all doubt it was the best thing that
could have happened to the English and
American missionaries. Both Mr.. Gandhi
and Mr.. Telang seem to be unaware of the
Change which has taken place among the
mass of the people of India in their feelings
toward Christian missionaries, especially in
recent years At the close of the mutiny ii
general distrust of missionaries was mani
tested in some parts of the Empire, but
this gradually passed away, and a different
feeling now prevails especially among the