Evening star., 1904-02-23
MISSIONARY WORK
Efforts to Convert the People
@ of India.
GROSSEST IGNORANCE
KEEN INTELLIGENCE AND HIGH
CULTURE ALSO FOUND.
Over $50 Different Languages Spoken
distribution Of the Bible-Trib-
ute From Lord Curzon.
BY WILLIAM e. CURTIS,

By WILLIAM e. CURTIS,
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star and
Chicago Record Herald.
BOMBAY, February 5, 1904.
There are about 5000 missionaries of
various religions and cults working among
the people of India; two-thirds of them
Protestants and about 1 800 Americans, in
Guiding preachers teachers, doctors, nurses,
editors and all concerned. Mrs. Annie
Besant is here instructing the Hndus as
to the beauties of their own philosophy
and urging them to restore Brahmanism
to its original beauty and purity. And
Mrs. Ole Bull of Madison, Wis, and a Miss
Noble have secured an old monastery on
the Ganges and are trying to convince
300 coo. 900 Hindus of the errors into which
they have fallen.
India is a fertile and favorite field for
such work. The languid atmosphere OF
the country and the contemplatve dis
position of the native encourage 1t. The
Aryan always was good listener, and there
are here some 100000 900 of him, some
striving for the unattainable and others
hopelessly submerged in bogS of vice,
superstition and ignorance. There are en-
tire tribes who still employ stone imple-
ments and weapons, and several provinces
are governed by feudal system like that
of Europe In the middle ages.
India's Contrasts.
There are thousands who believe that
marriage is forbidden by the laws of ma
ture; there are millions of men with sew
eral wives and women with more than one
husband. There are tribes in which wo-
men control all power, hold all the offices,
own all the property and keep the line of
inheritance on their side. There are vast
q han xrho ho-
lieve that women have no souls and no
hereafter, and advocate the murder of girl
babies as fast as they are born, saving
Just enough to do the cooking and mend
ing and to keep the race alive. Communi-
ties that have reached an intellectual cul-
ture above that of any nation in Europe are
surrounded by 250,0o0,00O human beings
who cannot read or write. There are think
ers who have reasoned out the profoundest
problems that have ever perplexed man
kind, and framed systems of philosophy as
wise as the world has ever known, and
many of their wives and daughters have
never been outside of the houses in which
they We're born All of which indicates
the size of the field of missionary labor
and the variety of work to be done
India contains some of the most sublime
ana beaattful of all the non-Christian re-
i1g1onS and perfect systems of morals de-
vised by men who do not believe in a future
life. More than 60 0Go,0O of the Inhabitants
accept Jesus Christ as an inspired teacher
and worship the same God that we do under
another name, and more than three times
that number believe that the Ruler of All
Things is a demon who delights in cruel
ty and slaughter and gives his favor only
in exchange for suffering and torture. A
tribe in northwest India believes that God
lives on the top of mountain in plain sight
of them, and up northeast are the Nagas,
who declare that after the Creator made
men He put them into hole and they eS
capped the world because one day He forgot
back a
the top.
Nearly 200 Languages.
In India are spoken 167 different lam
guages, as returned by the census. Some
of these languages are spoken by millions
Of people; others by few thousand only;
some of them have literature of poetry
and philosophy that has survived for ages,
while others are unwrjtten and only used
for communication by wild and isolated
tribes in the mountains or the jungles.
Christian missionaries have been at work
over here for little more than century,
and since 1904 have distributed 100000
Bibles. During the last ten years they have
sold 100000 copies of the Scriptures,
whether complete. or in part, for the Cos
pels in each of the great Indian languages,
like two sparrows can now be bought for
a farthing In 1898 497 900 copies were is
sued; in 1902 more than 100000 More than
40 coiporteurs or agents, are pedding the
Bible for sale in different parts of India.
More than 400 native women are engaged
in placing it in the secluded homes of the
Hindus among women of the harems and
teaching them to read it,
Growth of Christianity
The official census of the government of
India. based upon inquiries made directly
by sworn agents of the individuals them
selves, and not compiled from the reports
of the missionary societies, shows an in
crease III the number of protesting Chris
tians from 2036000 in 1891 to 2,6640 in
1901, gain of 625, 900, or 30 per cent, in ten
wears. In the central provinces and united
provinces the increase in the number of
persons confessing Christianity, according
to the census, was more than 300 per cent.
In Assam, which is in the northeastern
extremity of India, and the Punjab, which
occupies a similar position in the north
west the increase was nearly 200 per
cent In Bengal, of which Calcutta is the
chief city, the gain was nearly 90 per
cent; in the province of Bombay 1t was
nearly 40 per cent. Ger and IN Madras and
The dean of the American missionary
colony is Rev. r. A. Hume, who belongs
to the third. and his daughter to the
fourth generation of missionaries in the
family. He was born in Bombay, where
his father and his grandfather preached
and taught for many years Rev. Mr..
Ballantine, the grandfather of Mrs. Hume,
came over from southern Indiana in 1885.
The first Christian mission undertaken by
Americans in a foreign country was at
Bombay In 1918.
Praise From Lord Curzon.
Speaking of the services of the mis-
sionaries during the recent famine Lord
Cruzon said: II have seen cases where
the entire organization of vast area and
the HIVES of thousands Of beings rested upon
the shoulders of a single individual. labor
ing on in silence and in solitude, while his
bodily strength was fast ebbing away. I
have known of natives. who, inspired by
his example. have thrown themselves with
equal ardor into the struggle and have un-
laid down their lives for their
Particularly must mention
the noble efforts Of missionary agencies
Of various Christian denominations. II
there ever was an occasion in which It
was open to them to vindicate the high
est standards Of their benencent calling
1t was here, and atrenuously and faith
fully have they performed tho task"
Yvnf <hA ant NJ IND