The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-07-28

Below is the letter written by
Thomas f. Archibald, son Of Mr.. and
Mrs. James Archibald of this city,
which was read at Wednesday nights
prayer meeting in the First Presby-
terian church. The letter was mailed
at Singapore and is as follows:
Early Saturday morning. April IS,
my friend and l had our first glimpse
Oh the tar East. At once a dsillusion-
lHing process began when we saw at
bombay the tall modern buildings, the
chlmneys and all the signs of a great
port We were to learn that ones ideas
or the East are continually to be
changed. Many things were what we
expected; many more were entirely
dllterent. And now we are again at
sea, steering due south on the Pay of
Bengal and have leisure to think over
all we have seen and heard.
Much there has been to wonder at
ana admire. Like many tourists be-
iore us, we have marveled at the mag
niiicence of the Tai Mahal and the
other remains Of Mohammedan glory:
We have been stirred at Delhi and
Lucknow by the heroism of the Eng
lish during the mutinv of 1851; we have
had conflicting emotions as we have
seen hcathenism in its strength and
weakness at lIenares: and everywhere
we have gone we have been profound
ly impressed by the Eastern customs.
which now and again suggest the
scenes so familiar to us from the life
ana teaching of Christ, all these i'm
pressiOns have been varied and intense.
ly interesting but none are more per
manent and imposing than those which
nave come through our visits with the
missionaries.
ENTERTAINED AT BOMBAY.
Before reaching Bombay we had
hardly dare hope for more than the
hastiest insight into n work of which
we had heard and read so much. But
we had not left the ship before an in
Nitation was received to spend our
first sabbath on Indian soil with Mr..
George :. Eddy, a former secretary OF
the student volunteer movement at
home, at present located in India as a
college secretary of the Young Mems
christian association. With him at
PoOna-a hundred miles east of Bonn
bay--We were entertained by band Of
young men from Australia and from
them had our first lessons in what mis-
sion life really was. And on that Sab
bath morning in these new surround
ings, we stopped and asked ourselves
Are these the missionaries of whom
we have 50 long been taught? Are we
'I' Nutlly WITH lHtHl on the 1lelQ FOR
some strange reason we had not eX-
pected to find as missionaries young
mon of flesh and blood like ourselves.
And the misunderstanding process was
still going on.
In the evening at Poona, we were
taker to a meeting for Brahmins, where
an address was given upon the topic.
The Cross Of Christ" n teaching so
hard for the HindoO to understand
had hurled stones at the missionaries.
More than this we were told the POOna
l}rahmin was the hardest to reach of
all the keen, Wtted Indians. Yet that
evening these men listened intently to
the story of the cross. only a few max
ing light of what We hold most sacred.
How our hearts longed to help those
VINO heard and believed. vet had not
the courage to break away from the
bondage of caste-a bondage only
known as it is seen i'm real life, An
hour in such n place would arouse the
Christian church to mightier efforts
for the extension of the gospel
GOOD FORTUNE CONTINUED.
Since the day az Pcona good fortune
has continued with us, as we have met
those well known to the churches at
home from their leadership in mission
airy work We have been made well
come to their homes, as we'll as to their
meetings. Although we carried many
letters of Introduction, THE only in
PRODUCTION found necessa ary was an In
terest in their undertaking" This too
was the experience of DR.. Lawrence
as he writes in his book Oh "Modern
Missions in the East" book which
has been of the greatest interest and
value to us in understanding the full
meaning and breadth of missions
In Bombay we were entertained by
Mr.. and Mrs. f.. =. Hume, and saw
there something of the work of the
American board. We thoroughly en-
joyed the singing Of the school chill
| dren and a meeting of the native Chris
tian EndeaVOr society. No better work
so ii seemed to us, could be done than
| just this. At Agra one morning Wa
were uD with the sun and attended
! the opening exercises of a college un-
| der the care of the Church Missionary
! society of England. At Lucknow we
We're fortunate i'm meeting Bishop Tho
| burn, of the Methodist church, and in
| spending a Sabbath with him and his
allies in that Christian centre. At Cal
! Cutta we soon learned the influence
| which the Young Mems Christian asso-
| citation is bringing to bear upon the
| thousands Of students in that city.
There we We're introduced to some
|
| cational leaders of India and to 9TH
| erS-now students-who later are to be
| influential in church and state With
! Mr.. ]. Campbell, secretary of the coll
| lege work of the city, we spent a few
! hours at Serampore, where we saw the
| scenes of the labors of three famous
| missionaries--Carey, Marshmap and
! Ward. The pretty spot, EOw sacred as
| the resting place of these heroes of the
| faith has bppn a centre of interest for
many travellers like ourselves. 4 wait
! for cur steamer at Rangoon gave us
an opportunity to see what has been
wrought through the suffering and pa
| thence of Adoniram Judson, and his fell
| low workers early in the century. One
| of these pioneers, Father BraYtOn, as
he is reverently called. is still living
| at Rangoon at the age OF ninety years,
We were with him for an hour or more,
FOUR IMPORTANT FACTS.
And now during several days at sea,
we have had time to collect the many
ideas suggested by these weeks, anu
| to compare our own observations with
| those made by DR. Lawrence, in the
| book already referred to. There are
| four important facts which travelling
| in the East must impress indelibly upon
thoughtful Christian. More might be
given but space forbids.
The first visit in a missionary home
| reveals-an great revelation II is
too-that these men and women arc
| mortals like ourselves. They live as
the rest of us do, and have quite the
| same things and more to do and worry
| them as we in America. Their homes
too, we found, were like those they