August 1930
T h e
K i n g ' s
B u s i n e s s
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India’s Need B y J. R ussell H owden , B.D. (Home Director, Ceylon and India General Mission, London, England)
S ECENT events in India have focused attention upon that great land. For more than a century it has been the business o f the Church to seek to minister to India’s spiritual need. Much has been done for which we devoutly thank God. For example, in the year 1929 the British and
Probably at heart he is little concerned with political changes except as these may affect such practical matters of everyday life. Yet today he is being urged, whether he will or no, along the road that it is hoped will lead to full political emancipation and the blessing of democratic gov ernment. Democratic government will prove to be a bless ing or a bane just in proportion to the kind of character that India can produce in her public men. In the long run, high moral purpose and integrity of character is the pro
Foreign Bible Society circulated more than one million copies of the Scriptures. A t the date of the last census, in 1921, out of a population of 319,000,000 about 4,750,000 p r o f e s s e d to be
duct of the Gospel and of nothing else. If India’s aspira tions are not to in volve herself and the world in fresh prob lems and fresh suf ferings, there is ur gent need of Chris tian l e a d e r s h i p among her people. Each missionary society in India is re sponsible for its own particular contribu tion to the meeting of this need. One of these societies, the Ceylon and In dia General Mission, has been called in the providence o f God to undertake respon sibility for the evan
Christian. For this we may well thank God and take cour age. Yet after all, it m e a n s that only about one person in every one hundred is even a professing be liever in the Lord Jesus Christ. Ninety- nine out of every hundred are s t i l l heathen or Moslem. It is e a s y to write such words. But it is another matter to interpret them so that their impact may be felt on heart and con science. Let it be stated with all love, and yet w i t h all
plainness, that heathenism is not a stage towards the evo lution of a purer form of religion. Every heathen system in the world bears upon it the evidences of relatively purer forms of faith from which it has declined. Heathen ism is not progressive; it is retrogressive. Its forms of worship are often debasing. Lust, satiating itself not merely upon women but upon little children, is not only not condemned in heathenism, but it is actually regarded as a form of worship just as it was with the Canaanites in Old Testament times. Besides the continual , presence o f the cruelty of heathenism in India there is a new leaven now at work. The British Government has for a long time given educa tion to India. One result of that education has been the emergence1 ‘dL'new political aims and aspirations on the part of the educated classes. These educated classes are numerically small. Less than fourteen per cent of the men can read and write their own language, and only about two per cent of the women can do so. But that very fact gives the literate classes a disproportionate influence over their fellows. The great mass of the people live in the villages. There are only thirteen cities with a population of 200,000. Less than ten per cent of the people are found in towns. The Indian peasant needs security to till his crops and provide for his needs in peace. He needs even-handed jus tice face to face with the pressure of his own people.
gelization of a large area in South India and Ceylon. For more than thirty-fiv^ years the Mission has been working in Ceylon and in the Madras Presidency, and more re cently, in the Mysore State in South India. It is now responsible for areas containing over one million souls, Hindus, Buddhists, Moslems and Animists. There are yet great unoccupied territories and neglected regions whose condition of desperate spiritual need constitutes an appeal which cannot be disregarded. Therefore a strong aggressive forward movement is planned. We think o f such a forward movement as affecting mainly the field itself. O f course the most obvious results are to be looked for there. . But advance in the field is,, in the providence of God, dependent upon advance at home. Unless we allow God to work in us, among our home constituencies, it is futile to look for such an advance in the field. Are we willing to respond to this fresh call to service? God needs men and women who will look upon South India not as a place of interest but as a passion. Who will pray, not in any desultory fashion but with real agony o f soul ? Who will take the trouble to keep himself informed of all the conditions both within and without the Church? Who will share the burden of India’s unsaved souls with the Saviour who loves them and who died to redeem them?
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