Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-07-18
Mass Movements
Vanquish Caste
Among Millions
God, Working Through Human
Agency, Brings Success to
Missions in India.

AAuid , OultdSlS- WiilltH W llc
Rev. A. G. McGaw, and published by
the Board of Foreign Missions of the
Presbyterian Church. We quote por-
tons Of the pamphlet.
The author says. we'll. I'm India
Caste is king. Ages ago he was mar
ried to his own mother, Religion.
Chief among their own offspring is
the giant, Custom. chief of police,
possessed of large powers, yet al
ways in accord with his parents.
THE king is crafty by rant He
has made it unlawful for anyone In
his realm 10 marry or to eat ana
drink except within prescribed
circle He makes it almost impos-
sible&for anyone to travel abroad.
Those who do so are Inundated and
fined when they return. His loyal
subjects, starving in famine. have
been known to refuse bread rather
than break the rules of the realm.
India Is Awakening.
But India, with conscience aroused
by democratic ideas, and especially by
the Message of Christ is beginning
to face a gigantic problenl-the uplift
of the depressed classes. These 'un-
touchables,v of whom there are sixty
millions, are down-and- out, not be-
cause they have fallen or slnned, but
because 1t has been so decreed by
those who are supposed to have
sprung from the head of Brahm (God)
and are counted as gods themselves,
the Brahmans.
The poor now. however. have good
tidings preached TO them. This
proof of Messiahship. Christ gave to
the disciples of John who came to in
quire. The missions in India have not
been lacking in this same evidence of
its divine commission-but they were
slow about beginning such work on
a large scale. Some thirty-five years
ago in different parts of India God
opened the outcast door so wide that
the missions could not but enter.
They gradually took up this phase
of work and today it is estimated
that of the nearly four million con-
verts fully three-fourths are from the
outcasts. They were not specially
sought for. There were faithful ones
who prayed and prophesied:
There was a noise, and, behold
shaking and the bones came togeth-
er. bone to his bone. And when ] be-
helds>lo. the sinews and the flesh
came up upon them and the skin
covered them above; but there was
no breath in them.
The Mass Movement.
I'm India we began to call such
phenomena mass movements. God
was working and God was command
| ing.
Missionaries saw and heard and
marveled They took courage and be-
gan to prophesy, and the breath came
into them and they lived and stood
! ND upon their feet, an exceeding great
! army
Has the church yet awakened to
| the fact that the India missions have
been reaping immense harvests-that
| an extensive and continuous revival
| Is going on; that these missions have
had a Pentecost-an accession of 5000
souls-every two weeks for over
twenty years?
"Thirty-five years ago the Ameri-
can Baptists received in the Telegu
field over 10000 in ten months. To-
day that community numbers over
100 600. and since then another 100000
of the Telugus have become Chris
tians in connection with other mis-
sions.
I'm Haidara bad. the Methodists had
an increase of $1,000 in ten years,
/ while in the United Provinces of
Agra and Oudh they have over 15n,-
900, mostly gathered in during the
past twenty-five years In a single
district they baptized $3.50 in four
! years.
I'm the Punjab, the United Presby-
terrain Mission has grown from 153 in
1875 to over $4,000 in 1911.
In our own Presbyterian work, the
Punjab and North India Missions for
! the past fifteen years have been
reaping large harvests in connection
with the mass movement. These two
missions now have about 10000 OF
! these recent converts.
in yet other regions, other mis-
sions are reaping largely. 1t certain
! ly seems as if God had spoken and
moved the hearts of these multitudes
| in some direct way. Movements
spring up where very little seed has
been sown. There seems to be an in
ner preparation which is marve GUS,
and the only explanation is-God.
Moral and Spiritual Results.
"One of the most striking features
of these movements is the mental and
spiritual results achieved Even
where the converts have come from
the lowest and most degraded section
of society, already within the; short
space of fifty years large numbers of
them have exhibited to a very re-
markable degree the fruits of the
spirit and have by their Christian
| lives won the respect of those who
formerly despised and treated them
as untouchable.
These mass movements, If proper
ly dealt with, will be of untold value
to the cause of Christ in India.
1t is a remarkable fact that, wherever
in the village districts the work
among the depressed classes has been
most successful, there the caste peo-
pie have been most ready to hear and
accept the message of the gospel. 1t
is noticeable. too, that no part of the
churchs work in India excites more
| concern and emulation among many
sections of the educated classes. This
in itself is strong testimony to the
influence of this work as a witness to
the true nature and power of Chris
tianity.'
A Visit to Joseph Conrad.
Mary Austin, in Harper's Weekly,
| speaks of the rich and vivid person.
4 ality of Joseph Conrad. confirming
the impression recorded by Mr.. Brock
in a recent interview with Conrad.
Mrs. Austin says:
This was the first impression ne
| made on me when | went down to
find him in his English country home
three years ago. 1t stood out all the
more wildly for the unmistakable
traces of the Illness from which he
| was just recovering. Here was a man
who convinced you at the instant of
contact, that sickness and misfor-
tune and even death itself are very
trumpery devices to be employed
against the invincible human spark.
And the next was that the man was
inescapably romanticist.
ssIIa was one 10 whom life had