The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-11-16
ADDRESS BY REV. MIR. HUME
REGARDING IMPORTANT WORK
 IN MISSION FIELDS.

The Splendid christiantzinS Work
 Which is Being Done In IndIa-The
 Relief Work During the FRmiRo ard
 the Plague.
 Rev. Edward S. Hume of Bombay, India, spoke in the Humphrey street Congregational church Sunday morning and evening. Mir. Hume has had wide and varied experience in India, having been missionary there for over twen- ty-five years. In the morning he spoke to the question Do Missions Pay?" In many ways he showed that they cer- tainly do pay. A partner of Andrew Carnegie, very wealthy man, on a visit to India recently, saw the work of the American mission there and im- mediately became interested because of the work among the famine orphans, many of whom are gathered in MT. Hune's boys and girls schools. A very wealthy Parsee, a man who was not Christian, gladly loaned the use of one of his large buildings to be occupied by these famine children, saying-'TNat is good work.' Here, then, you have a testimony from a foreign traveller and a native Hindu to the value of Christian work in India. In fact, beyond the apparent results, so hard to tabulate and catalogue there is a quiet leavening influence on the part of Christianity up- on the entire native life in India. That the government of India is in hearty sympathy with mission work there, is proved by. the grants it makes for the support and spread of the work of mis- sion schools. As another of the results of the work of missions, one finds the Bible in every newspaper office, and among the counting houses of the we'll to-do Hindu merchants, who say that while they are not confessedly Chris tians, yet they order their lives in ac- cord with the principle of the Scrip lures. Yet another of the permanent and prominent results of modern mis- sions in India, is the large number of influential native churches with their own pastors, self-supporting and self propagating; the membership of which gives, though poor, more proportionate- ly than our churches at home for the support and spread of the gospel of Christ. In Mir Hume's Judgment, the opinion of one who certainly ought to know, there are thousands of Hindus who are at heart Christians, thoroughly tired of their own outworn religion, al- though for various reasons they do tot openly take stand for Christ. Taking this into consideration, together with the fact of the large percentage of in- crease in the Christian population in proportion to the birthrate in India, ev- cry one who has invested in missions there has great reason for believing the investment has paid.
 In the evening Mir Hume spoke upon The Aftermath of Famine and Plague in India. He said that 90,000,000 of people in India were affected by the famine, and 60,000,0 ,000 were sore distress ed. During this period the people of the United States were very generous, and thus Christianity had been commended to the people by this evidence of prac- tical Christianity. The Christian churches, however, were very carefuF not to admit these suffering and aided people to their membership during the period of distress for fear of making what is called rice Christians, but now that the danger is over many are being received because of the Christian spirit shown at the famine time. MT. Hume has now 500 boys and girls in his charge that have come to him through the loss of both parents through starva- ton. It costs $1, 300 per month to care eo,, sionary board but total of $500 a year for his entire work. How is the deficit raised? By foreign visitors passing through Bombay, who become interest ed in the work, and by friends every where. But to feed and clothe and edu- cate this large number is a great prob- lem. These boys and girls are very bright, intelligent and industrious, and are being taught all kinds of industrial trades. Many here gained prizes in their particular fields, rug making. lace making, artistic designing, etc., etc.
 But in addition to famine, India has had the bubonic plague, with from 400 to 10000 deaths a day-Whoie towns at times depopulated. But the strange feature of it all was the apparent inn
 nunity of the native Christian popula- ton, hardly a death from this cause since 1896. Why? Superior cleanliness but above all freedom from anxiety due to their faith in God.
 In closing, MT. Hume while making no direct appeal for funds to support this work, trusted that the American people who had done so we'll during the sore stress of the famine, would not now de- sert those whom God had sent to him to care for.