Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1909-07-23

the Church of England assumed great i'm
portance and undertook a work of great
proportions 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 mission
| schools. the care taken of orphans and
miserable child-widows has resulted in
| the training of many native Christians
from babyhood. and the Immediate re-
| lease from the tyranny Of caste has at
tracted thousands and thousands of low
caste Hindoos who had obtained enough
education to realize the nature OF their
slavery to the Brahmans.
Yet after all. the missionaries have con-
verted very few Hindoos and practically
none of the higher castles. They nos
! lens. as elsewhere. are not touched by
missionary efforts The great majority
of the converts to Christianity come from
the Animists and from the ranks Of other
creeds. In Burma many Buddhists are
being converted.
The Christian 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
100000 native Christians in India.
great many in the abstract. but only a
little more than one per cent of the whole
population. OF this number 1,125,00 are
Roman Catholics, $4,000 are Syrian Chris
tians, and 1,O00, 900 are Protestants.
There are $500 missionaries at work in
India, assisted by q, 900 native preachers.
teachers and helpers. This number In
cludes the medical missionaries, who have
more than 300 hospitals from which the
doctrines of Christianity and sanitary
cleanliness 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 company and
of the leading English statesmen and
Orientalists. the missionaries succeeded
in forcing the abolition of the terrible
rite of "suttee." in the practice of which
widows burned themselves alive on the
funeral pyres of their husbands. The
systematic and approved murder of new
born girls was practically stamped out
by the missionary influence. The terri
BILE misery of the Hindoo chiid-widow has
been alleviated by missionary efforts In
her behalf. and the civil law now gives
her the right or remarrlage. IN a more
indirect fashion. the missionaries have
done much good by inspiring reform
among the better educated high-caste
Hindoos, movements which have result
ed in the abolition Of many demoralizing
and degrading religious practices.
The Christian community increased 30
per cent in numerical strength in the last
census decade, and, despite the fact that
it has few recruits from the higher class
es, it has assumed importance as a re-
ligion among the native peoples of In
dia. In the storm which must inevi-
tably break over political India, the in
fuence of the Christian missionary will
be the most potent weapon of British de-
Tense. 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, dread
ing equally the crescent Of the Moslem
or the trident of the Brahman