Los Angeles herald., 1909-07-18
THE EMPIRE OF INDIA
XV-CHRISTlANITY AND ITS SPREAD
By Frederic j. Haskin

English Baptist. succeeded in gaining
admission to the country in 1899. He
founded a famous Baptist mission, IN
a tiny city then owned by Denmark,
which became the inspiration anu
model for all subsequent missionary er-
fort by the evangelical Protestant de-
nominations.
1t was not until 1914 that the East
India company permitted the estaD-
lishment of a bishopric of the Church
of England A company chaplain had
been stationed here In charge of the
English community, but with the es-
tablishment of a diocese the work
among the natives was begun. Bishop
Heber, the second bishop of Calcutta,
was a great writer and his books ana
hymns stimulated the Church OF
England to it's first active missionary
work. Adonlram Judson, an American
Baptist came to Burma in 1873. he
Is known as the Apostle to the Bur
mese," and has been called the great
est OF American missionaries. Hun
dreds of churches and chapels in the
east have his name. which Is also borne
by great institutional church In
Washington square, New York.
But the East India company per-
mitted the missionaries to come only
because of the fear of public opinion
In England. In India the company
continued to make things very hard for
them and progress was but slow.
Therefore the spread of Christianity in
India dates only from 1858, the year
after the mutiny, when Queen Victoria
assumed the government OF India and
the company practically ceased to exist.
Under the protection of the crown,
the missionaries came in from Eng
land, Scotland, Wales, America and the
Lutheran countries of continental
Europe The Catholics redoubled their
| n OF Church Of E1DnlanI
naturally assumed great Importance
and undertook q work of great pro-
portions The missions began to be
more or less successful at once, but 1t
was not until within the last fifteen
years that remarkable progress was
made.
The passion for education has brought
many within the influence of the mis-
sion schools, the care taken of orphans
and miserable child-widows has re-
suited in the training of many native
Christians from babyhood, and the i'm
mediate release from the tyranny of
caste has attracted thousands and
thousands OF low caste Hin6us who had
obtained enough education to realize
the nature of their slavery to the Brah-
mans.
Yet, after all, the missionaries have
converted very few Hindus and prac-
tically none of the higher castles. The
Moslems, as elsewhere, are not touched
by missionary efforts. The great ma
jority of the converts to Christianity
come from the animists and from the
ranks of other creeds. In Burma many
Buddhlsts are being converted.
The Chistian community has doubled
| In numbers In thirty years, and three
fourths of this increase is credited TO
the last fifteen years. There are now
over 5000 900 native Christians In India,
great many I'm the abstract, but only
little more than 1 per cent of the
whole population. OF this number l.
125,000 are Roman Catholics, $4,000 are
Syrian Christians and 100000 are Pro-
testants.
There are 5000 missionaries at work
in India, assisted by $4,000 native
preachers, teachers and helpers. This
number includes the medical mission
aries, who have more than 300 hospitals
from which the doctrines of Christian
ity and sanitary cleanlienss are being
preached in a most practical fashion.
Aside from the number of converts,
which is comparatively small, the in
fluence of the Christian missionaries In
India has been wonderful. In spite OF
the opposition of the East India conf
pany and of the leading English states
men and orientalists, the missionaries
succeeded in forcing the abolition of
the terrible rite of "suttee," In tho
practice of which widows burned them
selves alive on the funeral pyres of
their husbands. The systematic and
approved murder of newborn girls was
practically stamped out by the mission
ary influence. The terrible misery of
the Hindu child-widow has been alle-
waited by missionary efforts in her be-
half, and the civil law now gives her
the right of remarriage. In a more in
direct fashion the missionaries have
done much good by inspiring reform
among the better educated high-caste
Hindus, movements which have re-
suited in the abolition of many demor-
alizing and degrading religious prac-
tices.
The Christian community increased
30 per cent in numerical strength In the
last census decade, and, despite the
fact that 1t has few recruits from the
higher classes, II has assured import
ance as a religion among the native
peoples of India. In the storm which
must inevitably break over political
India, the influence of the Christian
missionary will be the most potent
weapon of British defense. The native
Christian knows what his fate would
be under an orientalized government.
and he will fight to keep the cross of
st. George high over him, dreadlng
equally the crescent of the Moslem or
the trident Of the Brahman.
Tomorrow-In Ceylon's Spicy Isle. 1.-The
Asiatio Awakening.