Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1904-02-02

not reach the people. In spite OF the
inhuman caste system that has BEEN
built up by Soami RAMS religion. thous-
ands of tine people become Christians,
and many who do not, learn to regard
the missionaries as their best friends.
The government census of 1901 shows
that there are over 2, 600, 900 native Chris
tians in India, and that the native Prot
estant community made an increase OF
over so per cent. in the last decade.
The claim that the high caste people
are untouched by Christianity is untrue
and misleading. am personally ac-
quainted with many Christians whose
caste was so high that under the in
fluence of their old religion they would
have considered themselves polluted by
the very shadow of Soami Ram. 1t Is
estimated that one convert in every six
have been from the high castles. That is
far larger in proportion to the whole
number of Christians than is the pro-
portion of high caste people in the entire
population.
In Calcutta, where labored for sew
eral years, there are many hundreds OF
high caste Hindus under the influence
of missionaries in Christian colleges.
My work was entirely among the educat-
ed class who are, with few exceptions,
high caste people. The aggregate at
tendance upon my Bible classes and ad-
dresses was nearly thousand month.
Other missionaries could make a like re-
port. That does not support Mr.. Rams
statement that ''the better classes of
India will not give missionary an audi
ence."
Even if it were true that no high caste
men become Christians it would be no
argument against missions. 1t was the
common people who heard Christ gladly.
They were the class that made the bulk
of the converts when Peter and Paul
preached. 1t is the glory of Christianity
that it can take the common people and
lift them up. Already in the Madras
colleges and universities it is found that
the children of low caste Christians are
becoming as numerous and intelligent as
the sons of high caste Hindus there.
India could ultimately become great
Christian country even if no high caste
man ever become a Christian. The
masses of the people are the strength
and hope of India, just as they are of
Oregon.
Even though every dollar given to Mr..
Ram by gullible people might be used to
bring young men to America to educate
them, the money would be wasted. In
the first place it has been proved by ex-
periments, that to educate any heather
people in America means to change
them so radically that they are no longer
acceptable to their people. In the Sec
ond place, we have no good thing in
America that could live divorced from
Christianity. AS this Hindu has no use
for our religion it is certainly not his
idea that the young men brought here
should be sent back as Christians.
Hence they could take nothing to benefit
their country. And in the third place,
there are government and missionary
schools in India ranging all the way from
kindergarten to universities, that are as
good as the best in England or America.
Mr.. Ram learned his English in such
school. All the men who attended my
classes heard me in English. The
Soami's young men can be much better
and cheaper educated in India than here.
He must know that. He is doubtless
aware that the missionaries are teaching
hundreds of young men and women to
lead their fellow countrymen to Christ.
But the Soami is cautious gentleman
and wanted to raise money enough to
enable him to complete his tour of
America and get back home. Some facts
must be kept in the background and
some things that are not facts must
be brought TO the front. Mr.. Ram has
probably heard that ''you can feol some
of the people all the time" He can
have good time and pay all expenses
without foeling very many in any one
place.
Probably Mr.. Ram would scof at the
idea that his religion practiced the burn
ing of widows with their dead husbands,
human sacrifice, and the dedication of
girls to the gods in a way that makes
them public prostitutes, just as he scoff-
ed at the idea of "Hindu mothers sac
rificing their babes to the sharks and
crocodiles of the Ganges river" Never
theless it is matter of history and pub
lie record that all these practices were
kept up until missionaries induced the
British government in India to stamp |
cut the evil. Indeed the dedication of
daughters to the gods to become religious
prostitutes is yet practiced. Hindu
mothers continued to offer their children
to the goddess Ganga by throwing them |
into the Ganges river until William |
Carey induced the government to stop it |
in 1902.
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