% i % <4.-*L -JL ^A. I-: S.C, Bartlett Historical Sketch of the Missions of the American Board in India and Cevlon i^.'J^W.*, '^WSKH 'mi y< BV 3265 .B36 1876 Bartlett, Samuel Colcord, 1817-1898. Historical sketch of the missions of the American HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE MISSIONS OF THE AMERICAN BOARD IN INDIA AND CEYLON, / BT Rev. S. C. BARTLETT, D. D. BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY THE BOARD, 1 Somerset Street. 1876. / ^^ 'b^ OF 4* Mum%^^^^ BARTLETT'S SKETCHES. MISSIONS IN INDIA AND CEYLON. Henry Martyn knew tlie Hindoos well ; and he once gaid, ^' If ever I see a Hindoo a real believer in Jesus, I shall see something more nearly approaching the resur- rection of a dead body than anything I have yet seen." But God knows how to raise the dead. And it was on this most hopeless race, under the most discouraging concurrence of circumstances, that he chose to let the first missionaries of the American Board try their fresh zeal. The movements of commerce and the history of pre- vious missionary effort naturally pointed to the swarming continent of Asia. It was over this benighted region that Mills brooded at his studies. The British Baptist mission near Calcutta readily suggested the particular field of India, and the impression was deepened by the ardent imagination of young Judson. His mind had, in 1809, been so "set on fire " by a moderate sermon of Buchanan's, the " Star of the East," that for some days he was unable to attend to the studies of the class ; and at a later period, a now forgotten book. Colonel Symes's " Embassy to Ava," full of glowing and overwrought descriptions, stirred him with a fascination for Burmah which he never lost. The Prudential Committee of the Board also looked to the Burman Empire because it was 2 SKETCHES OF THE MISSIONS. beyond the control of British authority, and therefore be- yond " the proper province of the British Missionary Society." Judson did indeed find his way to Burmah, but in a mode how different from what he expected ! cut adrift from his associates, and fleeing from British authority. The Board established this mission, but in a place and with a history how diverse from their intentions ! Man proposes, but God disposes. Bombay became the first missionary station. And that choice band of young disciples — God had roused their several hearts, brought them together from their distant homes, and united their burning zeal, to scatter them in the opening of their labor. There was Mills, given to God by his mother,- now strengthening her faltering resolution ; there was Hall, ready to work his passage, and throw himself on God's providence, in order to preach the gospel to the heathen ; there was Judson, ardent, bold, and strong ; and Newell, humble, tender, and devoted ; there was Nott, with the deep " sense of a duty to be done ;" and Rice, whose earnest desire to join the mission the Committee " did not dare to reject ; " and there was the noble Ann Hasseltine, with a heart all alive with • missionary zeal before the Lord brought Judson to her father's house in Bradford, and the young Harriet Atwood, gentle, and winning, and firm, mourning at the age of seventeen over the condition of the heathen, and at eighteen joining heart and hand with Newell, to carry them the gospel. Of all this precious band, two only. Hall and Newell, did God permit to bear a permanent part in that projected mission. Mills was to die on mid-ocean, in the service of Africa ; Harriet Newell was to pass away before she found a resting- MISSIONS IN INDIA. 3 place for the sole of her foot ; Nott was to break down with the first year's experience of the climate ; Mr. and Mrs. Judson, and Mr. E-ice, were to found another great missionary enterprise. On the 19th of February, 1812, the Caravan sailed from Salem, with Judson, and Newell, and their wives on board ; and on the 20th, the Harmony, from Philadel- phia, with Nott, and Hall, and Rice ; the one vessel go- ing forth from the heart of Congregationalism, the other from the centre of Presbyterianism, carrying the sym- pathies of both denominations. They sailed through the midst of the embargo and non-intercourse ; and the note of war with England followed their track upon the waters. Their instructions pointed them to the Burman Em- pire, but gave them discretionary power to go elsewhere. The Burman Empire could be reached only through the British possessions, and both vessels were accordingly bound for Calcutta. But the British authorities in India at that time were resolutely opposed to Christian missions. The East India Company professed to believe that the preaching of the gospel would excite the Hindoos to re- bellion, and was meanwhile drawling a large revenue from the protection of idolatry. The Baptist mission- aries at Serampore had felt the power of this hostility, but, being British subjects, and having long held the ground, could not be dispossessed. But the spirit of hostility had of late been kindled up anew. In the very year when Mills and Rice were founding their secret missionary society at Williams College, Rev. Sydney Smith was stirring up the British public, through the enginery of the Edinburgh Review, against the British mission in India. He opened by 4 SKETCHES OF THE MISSIONS. insinuating that the mutiny at Vellore was connected with a recent increase of the missionary force ; he con- tinued with ridicule of " Brother Carey's" and " Brother Thomas' " Journals, and closed with an elaborate argu- ment to show the folly of founding missions in India. He argues, first, from the danger of insurrection ; secondly, from " want of success," the effort being attended with difficulties which he seems to think " insuperable ; " thirdly, from " the exposure of the converts to great present misery ; " and fourthly, he declares conversion to be " no duty at all if it merely destroys the old religion, without really and effectually teaching the new one." In regard to the last point, he argues that making a Chris- tian is only destroying a Hindoo, and remarks that " after all that has been said of the vices of the Hindoos, we be- lieve that a Hindoo is more mild and sober than most Europeans, and as honest and chaste." Such was the tone of feeling he represented, and he returned next year to the task of " routing out " " a nest of consecrated cob- blers." The Baptist missionaries are " ferocious Meth- odists " and " impious coxcombs," and when they com- plain of intolerance, " a weasel might as well complain of intolerance when it is throttled for sucking eggs." He declares that the danger of losing the East India posses- sions " makes the argument against them conclusive, and shuts up the case ; " and he adds, that " our opinion of the missionaries and of their employers is such that we most firmly believe, in less than twenty years, for the conversion of a few degraded wretches, who would be neither Methodists nor Hindoos, they would infallibly produce the massacre of every European in India." To this hostile feeling towards missionaries in general was MISSIONS IN INDIA. 5 soon added the weight of open warfare between England and America. The Caravan reached her destination on the 17th of June. Scarcely had the first warm greetings of Christian friends been uttered, when the long series of almost apos- tolic trials began. Ten days brought an order from government, commanding the return of the missionaries in the Caravan. They asked leave to reside in some other part of India, but were forbidden to settle in any part of the Company's territory, or its dependencies. May they not go to the Isle of France ? It was granted. And Mr. and Mrs. Newell took passage in the first ves- sel, leaving their comrades, for whom there was no room on board. Four days later arrived the Harmony ; and Hall, Nott, and Rice also were summoned before the police, and ordered to return in the same vessel. They also applied for permission to go to the Isle of France ; and while waiting for the opportunity, another most "try- ing event " befell them. Mr. and Mrs. Judson, after many weeks of hidden but conscientious investigation, changed their views, and joined the Baptists. Four weeks later and another shock ; Mr. Rice had followed Judson. " What the Lord means," wrote Hall and Nott, " by thus dividing us in sentiment and separating us from each other, we cannot tell." But we can now tell, that the Lord meant another great missionary enterprise, with more than a hundred churches and many thousand con- verts in the Burman Empire. While the brethren still waited, they gained favorable intelligence of Bombay, and especially of its new govern- or. They received a general passport to leave in the ship Commerce, paid their passage, and got their trunks aboard, when there came a peremptory order to proceed c G SKETCHES OP THE MISSIONS. in one of the Company's ships to England, and their names were published in the list of passengers. They, however, used their passports, and embarked for Bora- bay, while the police made a show of searching the city for them, but did not come near the vessel. In a twelve- month from the time of their ordination, they reached Bombay, to be met there by a government order to send them to England. "While the Commerce was carrying Hall and Nott to Bombay, another sad blow was preparing. Harriet Newell was dying of quick consumption at the Isle of France. Peacefully, and even joyfully, she passed away, sending messages of the tenderest love to her distant relatives, comforting her heart-broken husband, and ex- hibiting a faith serene and unclouded. " Tell them [my dear brothers and sisters], and also my dear mother, that I have never regretted leaving my native land for the cause of Christ." " I wish to do something for God be- fore I die. But ... I long to be perfectly free from sin. God has called me away before we have entered on the work of the mission, but the case of David affords me comfort. I have had it in my heart to do what I can for the heathen, and I hope God will accept me." She is told she can not live through the day. " O, joyful news ! I long to depart." And so she departed, calling, with faltering speech, "My dear Mr. Newell, my hus- band," and ending her utterance on earth with, " How long, Lord, how long?" And yet God turned this seeming calamity into an unspeakable blessing. Mr. Nott, half a century later, well recounts it as one of the *' providential and gracious aids to the establishment of the first foreign mission," and remembers " its influence on our minds in strengthening our missionary purposes." MISSIONS IN INDIA. 7 And not only so, but the tale of her youthful consecration, and her faith and purpose, unfaltering in death, thrilled through the land. How many eyes have wept over the touching narrative, and how many hearts have throbbed with kindred resolutions ! " No long-protracted life could have so blessed the church as her early death." Look at one instance. The little town of Smyrna lies on the Chenango River in central New York. It had neither church, minister, nor Sabbath school ; and never had ■witnessed a revival of religion. The Memoir of Harriet Newell, dropped into one woman's hands in that town, began a revival of religion in her heart, through her house, through that town, and through that region. Two evangelical churches grew out of that revival. Men and women who were born again at that time, have carried far and wide the power of the cross and the in- stitutions of the gospel. On the Isle of France there still is seen a stranger's grave, while another solitary tomb may be seen on the distant Island of St. Helena. The one formerly contained the world's great Captain, the other holds the ashes of a missionary girl. But how in- finitely nobler that woman's life and influence ! From February till December, Hall and Nott, at Bom- bay, were kept in suspense, and even in expectation of defeat. The Governor of that Presidency was personal- ly friendly, but overborne by his official instructions. Twice were they directed to return in the next vessel, their names being once entered on the list of passengers, and at another time theii' baggage being made ready for the ship, and the Coolies waiting to take it. Again and again were they told there was no alternative, till all hope had passed. Hall had made his final appeal, in a letter of (\lmost Pauline boldness and courtesy, in which he bade 8 SKETCHES OF THE MISSIONS. the Governor " Adieu, till we meet you face to face at God's tribunal." The very next day they were informed that they might remain till further instructions were re- ceived ; and in due time they gained full permission to labor in any part of the Presidency. The Company had yielded to the powerful influence brought to bear, not only from without, but from within their own body at home. When, at the last moment, the Court of Directors were on the point of enforcing their policy, a powerful argu- ment from Sir Charles Grant, founded on the documents of the missionaries, turned the scale. India was open. Hall and Nott were soon joined by Newell, who, bereft as he was, and for a time supposing that his comrades had all been sent back, had yet resolved to labor alone in Ceylon. Bombay thus became the Plymouth of the American mission in India ; less prominent and influential than other stations, but noted as the door of entrance. Here began the struggle with Hindooism — intrenched as it w^as for ages in the terrible ramparts of caste, " inter- woven throughout with false science, false philosophy, false history, false chronology, false geography," entwined with every habit, feeling, and action of daily life, among a people prolific in every form of vice, and demoralized by long inheritance, till the sense of moral rectitude seemed extinct. The Hindoos, in some instances, charged the missionaries w^ith having written the first of Romans on purpose to describe their , case. Hindooism was aided, too, in its recoil, by the dealings of the English nation, who, says Sydney Smith, " have exemplified in our public conduct every crime of which human nature is capable." In itself, Bombay proved one of the most discouraging of all the stations of the Board. Sickness and death kep/ MISSIONS IN INDIA. 9 sweeping away its laborers, and it was years before the first conversion of a Hindoo. But one missionary now * resides at Bombay, and that city is now only one of the seven stations of the Mahratta mission — numbering some forty out-stations and thirty-one churches, with a membership scattered through a hundred and forty vil- lages. The tremendous strength of Hindooism is well exhibited in the fact that up to the year 1856, the total number of conversions in the mission was but two hundred and eighty-five ; and the sure triumph and accelerating power of the gospel were equally well expressed in the fact that for the next six years the conversions were near- ly twice as many as in the previous forty, and that never has there been such depth of interest, and so numerous accessions from the higher castes, as during the last few years. The seed-time has been long and wearisome. The full harvest-time is not yet come. But Hindooism is felt to be undermined ; and another generation may witness, if the church is faithful, such revolutions in India as there is not now faith to believe. The details of this long strug- gle, could they be here recounted, would present a record of faithful unfaltering toil, rather than of striking inci- dents. When once the missionaries were admitted, the strong hand of British power became their protection. There were many excitements, and there were sore trials on the part of those who often were called literally to abandon father and mother for Christ. But it was a rare thing when, in 1832, the missionaries were hooted and pelted with dirt in the streets of Ahmednuggur, and their preaching assemblies broken up. The field is intrinsically difficult, and this mission was the first experiment of the Board. Experience has led, within the last few years, to some modifications in * 1871. 10 SKETCHES OF THE MISSIONS. method, from which, ia connection with the large pre- paratory work ah-eady accomplished, greater results may reasonably be looked for. Less relative importance is attached to local printing and teaching, and far more to itinerant preaching and personal intercourse. Failure to reach the women was found to be not only a great ob- stacle to rapid progress, but the cause of many a relapse. The attempt to give an English education indiscriminate- ly in the schools proved to be more than unprofitable, in a missionary point of view, since the knowledge of Eng- lish often became an inducement to abandon the mis- sionary. Perhaps too little dependence also had been placed on native piety to maintain its own institutions, and organize aggressive movements. These things have bejjun to receive the most earnest attention. A native pastorate, missionary tours, self-support of the churches, heavier benevolent contributions, and greatly increased labors by women among the women, are omens of a time at hand when the gospel in India shall rest upon home forces and win its own way. The establishment of the Mahratta mission at Bombay was followed in 1816 by the mission to Ceylon, among a Tamil-speaking people, and in 1834 by the Madura mission, among the kindred Tamil people on the Con- tinent. A glance at these three regions of India at the present time would show at the Mahratta mission, cen- tring at Ahmednugger, some forty-seven stations and out- stations, including twenty-one churches with six hundred and twenty-nine communicants. The little band of ten missionaries, with their waives, is re-enforced by eleven na- tive pastors, three preachers, nine catechists, twenty-seven teachers, fourteen Bible women, and twenty-four other helpers. While the church members themselves are scat- MISSIONS IN INDIA. 11 tered through a hundred and forty villages, an organized system of itinerant preaching carried the gospel message, in 1870, to many hundred villages and sixty thousand or seventy thousand hearers. A theological class of six is coming forward, the church members are beginning to rally in earnest to the support of their ministry, Bible women are working their way into the families ; and it was a day to be remembered when a native Christian Alliance, with a hundred and fifty representative men, was lately held at Bombay, to impress upon each other the duty of independent labor to propagate the gospel in India. Their discussions were earnest and practical, and filled with " evidences of deeper feeling than was ever seen before in Bombay." But the struggle of the gospel in this region must still be a mighty conflict. The laborers are few, too few for anything like an aggressive movement. The Mahratta country, of which Bombay is the capital, extends three hundred miles on the coast and four hundred and fifty miles inland, with a population of eleven millions. "What are ten missionaries to such a population? They are contending with ignorance so dense that but five persons in a hundred can read at all, and few of them intelligent- ly. And as to the general level of intelligence, Mr. Bis- sell has well said, " The Hindoo knows nothing that is worth knowing, and what he thinks he knows is a de- lusion ; " " false geography, false astronomy, false his- tory," held with all the tenacity of false religion. They contend with a caste-system so divisive, that not only the touch, but the very shadow, of a Mahar is pollution to a Brahmin ; so terribly rigid, that when Vishnupunt, now pastor at Ahmednuggur, became a Christian, his parents performed funeral rites for him. Their son was " dead." 12 SKETCHES OP THE MISSIONS. They contend with an idolatry dreadfully benumbing to the mind and the heart ; that burnt widows and swung on hooks as long as it was suffered ; that still worships the cobra di capello and the crow ; that reckons it as great a charity to preserve the life of an animal as of a mau ; that actually built its poorhouses in Bombay for super- annuated cows, cats, and dogs, but never a poorhouse in all India for human beings ; that replies to the preacher, " A full stomach is my heaven," and, " You may as well play on a lute to a buffalo ; " and that, even when con- vinced of its lost condition, could come, as did Yesoba, and pour its bag of rupees on the floor, with the words, *' Sahib, take this money and give me salvation." They contend, too, with the adverse influence of a corrupt European civilization, and the counter-agency of open European infidelity, which has its organs even in Bom- bay, and which often fills with Deism the void in the mind of the educated Hindoo. But with all this they have fiaught and begun to con- quer. Yesoba, with his bag of rupees, found the Saviour, and lived and died in the faith. The Brahmin and the Mahar drink of one cup in the Christian church. Mr. Bruce records with wonder the change he found in the villages of Punchegav in 1870. Twelve years before, the patilf or head man, ordered the missionary out of the place with language of awful foulness. The second visit was resisted by the people themselves eii masse. On a third visit three missionaries could not find a soul to listen. And when at length Harkaba, an honored teacher, became converted, ''Beat him," "Kill him," "Bury him," were the fierce utterances of the enraged villagers. They could not fulfil their threats ; but they often made old Harkaba flee into the jungle to weep and pray. But now MISSIONS IN INDIA. 13 the same patil gave the missionary a cordial welcome, and offered to give the little church a piece of land for a chapel ; an evening lecture filled the " rest-house " full of people, and a hundred stood outside. This is certain- ly an unusual change. But there is, no doubt, a steadily increasing number of intelligent natives, who feel as did one, — a wealthy and influential man, — whom Mr. Bis- sel encountered in a little village on a missionary tour. " Sahib," said he, "your religion is true, and it will pre- vail in this land. If we do not embrace it, our children will ; or if they do not, their children will, for it is true and must prevail." A little group of eleven churches, with five hundred and thirty members, occupy the northern province of Ceylon, an island of two million inhabitants, once swept over by Francis Xavier with forty thousand so-called " converts." Here is the region where Richards, and Meigs, and Poor, and Scudder began their missionary work, and where Spaulding has faithfully toiled for more than half a century. The churches lie scattered among the rural districts and the cultivators of the soil, where one hundred and eighty thousand inhabitants of the Jaffna province are provided with five hundred and fifty heathen temples, holding their annual festivals, more impressive with pomp, and more insnaring with vice, to that sensual people, than can well be conceived. The festivals are Satan's grand gala-days, and the temples around which they gather are Satan's stronghold. It has been mostly a sappers' and miners' work, and not assault and storm. The mission began at Batticotta and Tilllpally, in the ruins of two Portuguese churches older than the settle- ment of America, and at Oodooville, in the residence of an ancient Franciscan friar. In about three years from 14 SKETCHES OF TUE MISSIONS. their first occupancy began (in 1819) the series of re- vivals, which, in the early history of this mission, carried it steadily onward. They were frequent in the schools. It was a delightful time in 1824, when the Spirit of the Lord came down almost simultaneously on the schools at.Til- lipally, Oodooville, Batticotta, Manepy, and Paudeteripo. There was weeping for sins. Tliere was praying by night in companies and alone, " the voice of supplication heard in every quarter," out in the garden at Pandeteripo, each company or individual " praying as though all were alone," and coming in with the weeping inquiry, " "What shall we do to be saved ? " Sixty-nine were thought to have found the Lord at that precious time. More than once did the schools at Batticotta, Oodooville, and Tillipally experience these simultaneous revivals, extending also to the adult population of the towns. Every year wit- nessed admissions to the church, rising in one year (1831) to sixty-one. The British government, though admitting the first few missionaries, had steadily refused, till the year 1833, to permit any increase of their number. And yet the little band had made steady progress. In a dozen years from their landing, they were preaching regularly to two thou- sand hearers on the Sabbath, they ware hopefully itinerat- ing in the villages, and they had forty-five hundred pupils in their ninety-three free schools, their boarding schools, and their seminary at Batticotta. They had gained the hearty co-operation of the associate justice, and other distinguished gentlemen of Ceylon, and raised their semi- nary to so high a repute that where once it was difficult to procure a pupil, now they selected their entering class of twenty-nine from two hundred applicants. In 1833, the government restriction having been removed, a re- MISSIONS IN INDIA. 15 enforcement of seven missionaries, including a physician and a printer, arrived. Their coming was signalized by the establishment, next year, of a mission (the Madura mission) among the kindred Tamil people on the Con- tinent. Converts were added in Ceylon for the next three years, seventy-nine, fifty-two, forty-nine. And in 1837, with one hundred and eighty-seven free schools, containing seven thousand pupils, a hundred and fifty students in the seminary, and ninety-eight girls in the school at Oodooville, and a rising tide of respect and in- fluence all around, it seemed as though victory was or- ganized. But that year brought a stunning blow. The failure of the funds from America, in that time of pecuniary trouble, compelled the mission to disband a hundred and . seventy schools, to dismiss more than five thousand chil- dren, including a part of the pupils in the two seminaries, to stop their building, curtail their printing, and cut down to the very quick. Their Sabbath congregations were nearly broken up, all their activities razeed, their spirits discouraged, and their hearts almost broken. It was a time of woe. The heathen exulted. Native converts were discouraged and led astray. Educated and half- educated youth were snatched away from under the gospel, and often worse than lost to the cause. And though in the following year the home churches were startled into furnishing the funds once more, and the mission kept thanksgiving over the restoration, it may be doubted whether it has ever recovered its lost head- way and its firm hold upon the country. The well-grown tree had been pulled up by the roots. May such havoc never be wrou^rht a^ain. The missionaries experienced another great shock in 10 SKETCHES OF THE MISSIONS. 1843, when they discovered the old Hindoo leaven break- ing out in the Batticotta seminary in such falsehood and gross vices as necessitated the expulsion of sixty-one pupils, including the whole select class, and the dismis- sion of several native teachers. It was one of those fear- ful pieces of surgery which the constitutional rottenness of heathenism may sometimes require. Outwardly, the wound healed over in a year, and the school was more flourishing than before. No striking events have occurred within the last few years. Marked revivals, though not unknown, are less frequent than they once were. The novelty, and, per haps, prestige of the gospel have long passed by, and it takes its place by the other religions, to contend for the land by a long-continued struggle. But the mission is organized for work, and its churches are in a transition state toward self-support. Five native pastors, three other native preachers, fourteen catechists, and seventy- eight teachers are re-enforcing the missionaries ; while the Batticotta " Training and Theological School," with its twenty students, and the female boarding schools at Oodooville and Oodoopitty, with seventy-six pupils, are raising a further supply, and twenty-six hundred children are gathered in the village schools, which are now aided and partly controlled by the British government. All the villages of the province are now accessible to the gospel, and, from time to time, many of them are visited by the missionaries, or by native preachers, catechists, and colporters, going from house to house, gathering congregations when they can, and making known the truth. Weekly conferences, and mothers' meetings in the churckes, a religious paper (The Morning Star), and the " Native Evangelical Society," a Board of Foreign MISSIONS IN INDIA. 17 Missions, with its " annual meetings and reports," and " special appeals '* for an occasional debt, crowned with success, its chapel-buildings, where the remaining debt (as at Pungerative last year) is cleared off on dedication day, — all begin to remind one of the mother country on a small scale. These things, with the increasing depen- dence on the native agencies, and the movement for more effective influence upon the women by their own sex, are pointing forward to a time when these home agencies shall take care of themselves. The missionary force is at present inadequate to the best economy and activity, and formidable foes are to be encountered. A tide of educated infidelity also increases the semblance of a civil- ized land. Thus the first two natives who received the degree of A. B. at Madras University, on the Continent, turned against Christianity. At the same time there is apparently a wide-spread intellectual conviction of its truth among those who refuse to submit to its claims. The posture of things is well indicated in the case of two persons with whom Mr. De Riemer had a recent inter- view — a young Brahmin and an old Sivite priest whom he brought with him. The young Brahmin boldly as- serts the sin and folly of idolatry, and is greatly in- terested in the gospel, but cannot gain strength to cut the cord that his wife, family, and rank bind around him, and come out for Christ. The old Sivite priest (or gooroo), for sixty years an attendant on one of the largest temples, lamented not only his waning star, but the grow- ing neglect and disrespect of the people for their gooroos. And when asked if this were not an omen of the day when the gospel would supplant the whole religion, he raised both hands and exclaimed, " Undoubtedly ! Most D 18 SKETCHES OF THE MISSIONS. certainly ! The time is very near at hand. Only a few days." Would it were true. But the end is not yet. The Madura mission embraces the " Madura Collec- torate," an oblong district of about eighty-eight hundred square miles, containing a population of some two mil- lions, scattered through nearly four thousand villages, and speaking the Tamil language. The city of Madura lies near the centre. In the midst of this population eleven ordained missionaries and a physician, with their wives and other ladies, occupied, in 1870, thirteen stations and a hundred and fifty out-stations. They had clustered round them twenty-eight churches, with fourteen hun- dred communicants, including eight native pastors, a hun- dred and twenty-two catechists, and a band of teachers. A newly-formed theological school at Pasumalai, with twenty-two students, is raising a further supply of young ministers, preaching as they study. A regularly organized system of itinerant preaching has in one year reached twelve or thirteen hundred villages and seventy thousand hearers. The church collections, for local and other purposes, have reached, by a steady increase, thirty- two hundred rupees a year. An Evangelical Alliance is aiding the churches toward self-support. Bible women are pleasantly received ; and the change in many homes is such that the missionary has ventured to remind his congregations, that once they had " donkeys in their houses, but now friends and companions." Opposition, and even downright persecution, are not wanting. In a village near Madura, recently, a little band of Christians were, by artful accusations, brought eight times before the police, and twice lodged in jail. But " stolid in- difference " is the chief obstacle — utter animal life. The signs of promise, however, are not few. The churches MISSIONS IN INDIA. 19 are more effectually reaching the higher castes. Mr. \Yashburn reports twenty-five hundred Bibles, or por- tions of the Bible, sold in nine years around the station of Battalagundu. A Brahmin reported that the income of the temple at Tirupuvanam had fallen off forty per cent, in four years. The persecution near Madura oc- casioned a meeting of the friends and relatives to con- sider the question of joining the persecuted. And in parts of the field occasional facts recall the scenes of early Jewish and of later Christian lauds. Mr. Chandler, in 1870, encountered a representative of Christ's own hearers in a man of w^ealth and high caste, who has read Christian books, and will build a school-house for a Chris- tian school, who says he " believes in the Christian re- ligion, and would embrace it but for certain family ties, from which he cannot now break away." And Mr. Tracy, later still, found in Madura just such persons as we find at home — young men, intelligent, educated, amiable, denouncing the follies of idolatry, cordially admitting Bible truths, acknowledging even their own sin, but strenuously refusing Christ and an atonement, with the declaration that " repentance was the only atonement needful." In view of this state of things, it will not be surprising if, with God's blessing and a sufficient working force, the next ten years shall show great changes in this field, for which the church has great encouragement to pray, and look, and give. Two significant facts arrest the atten- tion : More than four fifths of these church members have been gathered during the last half of the time, and they represent twenty different castes. In this goodly work have been found engaged some of the choicest spirits that the church has seen since apos- 20 SKETCHES OP THE MISSIONS. tolic times. The names of Hall, and Newell, and Poor, and Scuddcr, and Meigs, and Iloisington, and Winslow, and Ballantinc, and many others now with God, are names of blessed memory and holy fragrance. And where are the like-minded men to enter in and finish the work? It was theirs to open the field to the Christian world : who will follow? The task is well begun. '^ There will prob- ably be," said an intelligent observer, " a long prepara- tory work in India, and a rapid development." Hitherto the enterprise has been carried on amid dis- couragements, oppositions, private persecutions, and even poisonings of converts ; but it has steadily gone forward. And when we see the accelerated motion with which the gospel is now pushing its way, when we view men of the higher castes coming in and the whole fearfid enginery of caste giving way, when we see the gathering of the Christian denominations toward India, and listen to the confessions of the Hindoo organs and leaders, we some- times think the harvest may not be far away. And to-day, over against the despairing cry of Martyn, and the dogged assertion of Sydney Smith, we will put the admission of the Indu FraJcash^ the native Bombay newspaper : " We daily see Hindoos, of every caste, becominsr Christians and devoted ' missionaries of the cross.' " And so far as figures can show the power of a movement that runs deeper than all figures, ponder the following statistics, carefully compiled in 1862. In the three Presidencies of India there were representatives of thirty-one missionary societies at work, aided by ninety- eight ordained native preachers. They were regularly dispensing the gospel to one thousand one hundred and ninety congregations, besides hundreds of thousands of otlier hearers ; they reckoned a hundred and thirty- MISSIONS IN INDIA. 21 eight thousand registered or nominal Christians, of whom thirty-one thousand were communicants ; they had ninety thousand children and youth in attendance on their schools. These facts are to be viewed as only the foundation, long laid in silence below the surface, for vastly greater changes yet to appear. So deep is the hold of the work, not only on the native converts, bat on the foreign resi- dents, that the churches themselves already (18G7) con- tribute twenty-five thousand dollars a year ; while British residents in India give a hundred thousand dollars an- nually to the several missionary societies in that country. And could the witty writer of the Edinburgh now visit the scene, he might incline, in several particulars, to modify his judgment of 1808 — -that the missionaries " would de- liberately, piously, and conscientiously expose our whole Eastern empire to destruction, for the sake of converting half a dozen Brahmins, who, after stuffing themselves with rum and rice, and borrowing money from the mis- sionaries, would run away, and cover the gospel and its professors with every species of ridicule and abuse." He might be glad, also, to sum up his case a little differently than thus : " Shortly stated, then, our argument is this : We see not the slightest prospect of success ; we see much danger in the attempt, and we doubt if the conversion of the Hindoos would ever be more than nominal." It is a marvelous specimen of the folly of this world's wisdom, and a strong showing how God hath chosen the weak things of this world to confound the mighty. Never was an enterprise begun and prosecuted with a deeper sense of helplessness without God, and of whole- souled trust in his power and his promise. Judson has well expressed the spirit that animated all his comrades. 22 SKETCHES OF TUE MISSIONS. When ho had been three years at his post, and had found neither a convert, an inquirer, nor an interested listener, he could write thus : " If any ask. What prospect of ulti- mate success is there? tell them, As much as that there is an almighty and faithful God. ... If a ship was lying in the river, ready to convey me to any part of the world I should choose, and that, too, with the entire approba- tion of all my Christian friends, I would prefer dying to embarking." Two years more witnessed but one in- quirer — yet the same song of faith and hope : " I have no doubt that God is preparing the way for the conver- sion of Burmah to his Son. This thought fills me with joy. I kuoAv not that I shall live to see a single convert ; but, notwithstanding, I feel that I would not leave my present situation to be made a king." Such was the dauntless courage that led the first For- eign Mission of the American churches ; such the first handful of Christian soldiers that deliberately sat down to the siege of all India — to whom God gave the victory. How sublime that faith ! How glorious the reward ! " He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bring- ing his sheaves with him." Let Christians and churches ponder well the struggle of the gospel for a foothold in India, and never again entertain one doubt of the sacred promise, " Lo ! I am Avith you alway, even unto the end of the world." 3farch, 1876. The foregoing sketch was prepared in 1871, and the statistics given are for that year, — of course not correct as matters stand now. But in bringing out a new edition, it is thought best to use the stereotype plates much as they MISSIONS IN INDIA. 23 were left four years ago, simply appending here a few para- graphs, as to the present condition of the missions. New laborers have gone to each of the fields. The reinforcements to the Mahratta mission have been. Miss Sarah F. Norris, M. D., in 1873 ; Rev. Robert A. Hume and wife, and Miss Martha A. Anderson in 1874; Wm. O. Ballantine M. D. and wife. Rev. Edward S. Hume and wife, and Rev. Lorin S. Gates and wife, in 1875. Miss Elizabeth Sisson joined the Madura mission in 1872 ; Rev. Messrs. Wm. S. Howland and John S. Chandler, with their wives, in 1873 ; and Rev. M. R. Peck and wife in 1875. Rev. Samuel W. Howland and wife, and Miss Susan R. Howland went to Ceylon in 1873. It is well worthy of notice that of these twenty persons eleven are children of parents who are, or have been, connected with these missions, namely, the three Howlands, the two Humes and both their wives (formerly Miss Burgess and Miss Chandler), Dr. Ballantine (three of whose sisters had be- fore returned to India as the wives of missionaries), Mr. Chandler and his wife (formerly Miss Minor), and Mrs. Gates, formerly Miss Hazen. Nine of the laborers now connected with the Mahratta mission were born in that field. Educated in America, they have returned to carry on the evangelizing work so well begun by their parents. No special change has taken place in the character or conditions of the missionary work unless a decided increase of effort among women may be regarded as such a change. In these, as in nearly all foreign fields, " woman's work for woman " has greatly increased of late. In the Mah- ratta field, the missionary ladies, as a native pastor testi- fies, " without neglecting household duties, somehow make time for this work," and " it is owing to their efforts that 24 SKETCHES OF THE MISSIONS. SO many women are brought into the church." In the Madura field Miss Sisson, and in Ceylon Misses Hillis and Howland are specially engaged in this department, other ladies of the missions, and native " Bible women, " also doing much in the same work, which seems to be indeed, as Miss Sisson reports, " one of much promise ; although it is but recently that the thick veil of prejudice, which hides these poor heathen women from our missionary ladies, has been lifted at all, and the work is still in its in- fancy." All the missions are striving to bring forward a better educated native agency, by means of boarding schools for girls, and seminaries, and theological and training schools, or classes for young men. The Jaffna College (not de- signed to be a mission institution though one in which the mission feels a deep interest) has been started in Ceylon with, as yet, quite insufficient funds, but with much of promise if needed funds to complete a very moderate endowment can be secured. There are now, in the three missions, 39 native pastors, while about 120 other natives are engaged as preachers and catechists in evangelizing work. Additions to the churches by profession, during the last four calendar years reported, have been as follows, and show gratifying progress : — 1872 1873 1874 1875 Mahratta Mission Madura Mission Ceylon Mission 37 117 41 76 127 27 116 123 44 126 182 80 Totals 195 230 283 388 MISSIONS IN INDIA. 25 The following table presents other STATISTICS OF THE MISSION IN 1875. « « 00 "^ a o V r: 0) m a 0) a . > "5^ o 1 a a 3 O OS h on to o PhO II 3 S 3.S as S.5 "s-s PhQ Mahratta Mission . . 6 .W 11 1 1.1 15 .') 99, 23 868 inn 965 Madurst Mission . . 11 US T^ 1 1« 1- im l.W 3-^ 1880 1.53 114 2,862 Ceylon Mission . . 7 12 5 1 10 7 14 30 12 679 34 92 5,926* Total 23 216 28 3 41 39 122 2-2 67 3,427 187 306 9,753 It may be well to present here a few statements in regard to the general missionary work in India — its progress and its prospects, — by quoting briefly from an article published in the London " Quarterly Review " for April, 1875, and also from a more recent article in the "Foreign Missionary," of the Presbyterian Board, for January, 1876. The "Quarterly" states: — " A considerable change in the feelings with which In- dian missions are regarded has recently taken place. The emphatic testimony of the Indian Government in their favor has already produced a marked effect on the public mind, an instance of which is apparent even in an article on ' Christian Missions ' in a recent number of the ' West- minster Review,' in which the writer, whilst disparaging missions in general, goes so far as to admit that the re- sults of the Indian missions ' constitute the most brilliant page in the whole history of our missionary enterprise.* " The number of converts in connection with the various Protestant missions in India, as ascertained -by the statis- tical returns to which we have referred, is much greater * The common schools connected with this mission are now under the care of a Board of Education, and are not strictly mission schools. 26 SKETCHES OF THE MISSIONS. than it was expected to be. When the results of this re- lio-ious census were made known, it is hard to say whether the friends of missions or their enemies were most sur- prised. The total number of native Protestant Christians in 1871 was found to be 318,363 ; of whom 78,494 were communicants ; the number of native ordained ministers was 381 ; and the amount of money contributed by native Christians alone, for religious and charitable purposes, was £15,912. What is still more remarkable is the rapidity and steadfastness of the ratio of increase. During the ten years previous to 1861 the rate of increase was 53 per cent. During the ten years previous to 1871, the rate of increase rose to 61 per cent. During this last period of ten years, the increase in the number of converts amounted to no fewer than 85,430 souls in India proper alone." The "Foreign Missionary" says, January, 1876: " To- day the missionary work is carried on in India and Ceylon by thirty-five missionary societies, besides local agencies. In the different Presidencies are 500 ordained missiona- ries, occupying more than 400 stations and over 2,000 sub-stations, the latter chiefly manned by native laborers." After giving various statistics of the work, it adds : — " These results of missionary labor are great and wonder- ful, but other changes, through the pressure of Christian sentiment and the power of truth, have taken place. In 1825 the Government abetted idolatry, and sought no alliance with Christianity. It husbanded the endowments of temples and mosques ; it supplied funds from its treasury for repairing temples and roads to sacred places ; it taxed pilgrims, and endowed schools for the teaching of error and superstition. Then infanticide abounded ; Suttees flourished ; bloody rites were practiced. Then no Chris- MISSIONS IN INDIA. 27 tian convert could obtain his rights in regard to property. These and kindred evils existed. Now all is changed. Government protects and aids missionary operations ; it has cut itself loose from all connection with idolatry ; in- fanticide is declared a criminal act ; Suttee is prohibited ; and cruel rites have been forbidden. The Koran and the Ganges water are banished from the courts of justice. Converts are protected in their rights, and the legal va- lidity of widows re-marrying is proclaimed. Hindooism is losing its hold upon the many, and the idea is growing that it must disappear under the power of Christianity. There is an enlarging circle that has broken with Brahmin- ism, though not yet yielding openly to the religion of Jesus. Signs of improvement — material, social, intellect- ual, and moral — fill the land. The natives are awaken- ing from the sleep of ages ; the desire for sound knowl- edge is growing. Caste is relaxing. Stereotyped customs, that have been more powerful than law, are disappearing. A knowledge of the Bible is speading, its precepts are becoming more influential, and the truth is working won- ders among the aborigines, who never yielded to Hindoo or Mohammedan influence, but are now accepting joyfully the doctrines of the Cross. " Christianity has obtained a firm footing. Its ambas- sadors are alive to the importance of its dissemination, and are increasing in numbers and skill. Native churches have been planted all over the land, and these are becom- ing more potential for good." 28 SKETCHES OF THE MISSIONS. MISSIONARIES, 1876. Mahratta Mission. Rev. Samuel B. Fairbank Mrs. Mary B. Fairbank Rev. Allen Hazen, D. D. Mrs. Martha R. Hazen Rev. Lemuel Bissell, D. D. Mrs. Mary E. Bissell . Rev. Charles Harding • Mrs. Elizabeth D. Harding Rev. Henry J. Bruce Mrs. Hepzibeth P. Bruce Rer. W. H. Atkinson . Calista Atkinson S. R. Wells . Mary L. Wells . Charles W. Park . Anna M. Park Richard Winsor Mary C. Winsor . Miss Harriet S. Ashley . Miss Sarah F. Norris, M. D Rev. Robert A. Hume . Mrs. Abbie S. Hume . Miss Martha A. Anderson William 0. Ballantine, M Mrs. Alice C Ballantine Edward S. Hume Charlotte E. Hume Lorin S. Gates . Frances A. Gates . Mrs Rev Mrs Rev Mrs. Rev Mrs, Rev Mrs. Rev, Mrs. D. Madura Mission Rev. William Tracy, D. D. Mrs. Emily F. Tracy . Mrs. Martha S. Taylor. . Rev. John Rendall Rev. James Herrick Mrs. Elizabeth H. Herrick Rev. John E. Chandler . Mrs. Charlotte H. Chandler Rev. Thomas S. Burnell Mrs. Martha Burnell . Rev. Joseph T. Noyes . Mrs. Elizabeth A. Noyes Rev. W. B. Capron Mrs. Sarah B. Capron 1846 1856 1846 1846 1851 1851 1856 1869 1862 1862 1867 1867 1869 1869 1870 1870 1870 1870 1871 1873 1874 1874 1874 1875 1875 1875 1875 1875 1875 1836 1844 1845 1845 1845 1845 1845 1848 1848 1848 1848 1856 1856 Station. Ahmednuggur. Bombay. Ahmednuggur. Sholapoor. Satara. Sholapoor. Bhuing. Bombay. Satara. Bombay. Bombay. Ahmednuggur. Ahmednuggur. Rahoori. Ahmednuggur. Sholapoor. Tirupuvaaam. Mandapasalai. Battalagundu. Tirumangalam. Madura. Melur. Periakulam. Mana Madura. MISSIONS IN INDIA. 29 MISSIONARIES, 1876. Rev. Edward Chester . Mrs. Sophia Chester . Rev. George T. Washburn Mrs. Eliza E. Washburn Miss Martha S. Taylor . Miss Mary E. Rendall Miss Elizabeth Sisson Rev. William S. Howland Sirs. Mary L. Howland . Rev. John S. Chandler Mrs. Jennie E. Chandler Rev. Marshall R. Peck Mrs. Helen N. Peck Ceylon Mission, Miss Eliza Agnew Rev. William W. Howland Mrs. Susan R. Howland Rev. Eurotas P. Hastings Mrs. Anna Hastings . Samuel F. Green, M. D. Mrs. Margaret W. Green . Miss Harriet E. Townshend Rev. William E. De Riemer Mrs. Emily F. De Riemer Miss Hester A. Hillis Rev. Thomas S. Smith . Mrs. Emily M. Smith Rev. Samuel W. Howland Mrs. Mary E. K. Howland Miss Susan R. Howland Went Out. 1858 1858 1860 1860 I8G7 1870 1872 1873 1873 1873 1873 1875 1875 1839 1845 1845 1846 1846 1847 1862 1867 1868 1868 1870 1871 1871 1873 1873 1873 Station Dindigul. Pasumalai. ^ Mandapasalai. Battalagundu. Madura. Mandapasalai. Madura. Ooodooville. Tillipally. Batticotta. Manepy. Oodoopitty. Chavagacherry Manepy. Oodoopitty. Oodooville. Manepy. THE MISSIONARY HERALD; A Monthly Magazine of 32 pages octavo ; the organ of the American Board. Price, $1.00 a year. Orders for this publication should be ad- dressed, — Mr. CHARLES HUTCHINS, No. I Somerset Street, Boston. LIPE AND LIGHT POR HEATHEN WOMEN; A Monthly Magazine, published by the Woman's Board of Missions. Price 50 cents a year. Letters relating to this should be addressed, — SECRETARY WOMAN'S BOARD OF MISSIONS, No. 1 Somerset Street, Boston. CORRESPONDENCE. The Corresponding Secretaries of the Board are Rev. Selah B. Treat and Rev. N. G. Clark, D. D. Letters relating to the Missions and General Concerns of the Board, may be addressed SECRETARIES OF THE A. B. C. F. M., No. 1 Somerset Street, Boston. Donations and letters relating to the Pecuniary Concerns of the Board (except letters on the subject of the Missionary Herald) should be ad- dressed LANGDON S. WARD, Treasurer of the A. B. C. F. M. No. 1 Somerset Street, Boston. Letters for the Secretaries of the Woman's Board may be addressed SECRETARY WOMAN'S BOARD OF MISSIONS, No. 1 Congregational House, Boston. Letters for the Treasurer of the Woman's Board should be addressed Mrs. BENJAMIN E. BATES, No. 1 Congregational House, Boston. Books Concerning Missions and Missionari Tho following Books, many of them suitable for Sunday S( Libraries, may be obtained by mail, postage paid, through the Offi' the Missionary Herald Memorial Volume of A. B. C. F. M. By Dr. Anderson $1.25 Foreign Missions. By R. Anderson, D. D., LL. D 1.25 History of the Sandwich Itilands Mis- sion. By Dr. Anderson 1.50 History of the Missions of the American Board to the Oriental Churches. 2 vols. By Dr. Anderson. Per vol. • 1.50 History of the Missions of the Amer- ican Board in India. By Dr. Ander- son 1.50 Life in India. By Caleb Wright, A. M 1.75 Woman and her Saviour in Persia. By Rev. T. Laurie, D. D 1.25 Zulu Land. By Rev. Lewis Grout . 2.00 Five Years in China : or, Life of Rev. AVilliam Aitchison 1.25 Bible Work in Bible Lands. By Rev. Isaac Bird 1.50 Tenuessean in Persia 1.75 Ten Yeai'S on the Euphrates. By Rev. C. H. Wheeler 1.25 Letters from Eden. By Rev. C. H. Wheeler 1.25 Missions and Martyrs in Madagascar . .80 The Gospel among the Caftres ... .85 Scenes in the Hawaiian Islands . . .1.25 Missionary Sisters 1.25 The Morning Star 1.00 The Missionary Patriots. By Rev. I. N. Tarbox 1.25 Life Scenes among the Mountains of Ararat. By Rev. M. P. Parmelee . 1.25 Faith AV'orking by Love : Memoir of Miss Fiske 1.75 Tah'-koo Wah-kan ; or, the Gospel among the Dakotas. By Stephen R. Riggs, A. M 1.50 Lectures to Educated Hindus. Prof. Julius II. Seelye 1.00 Christian Missions. Prof. Seelye . . 1.25 The Martyr Church of Madagascar . 2.00 Memorials of Charles Stoddard. By his Daughter, Mrs. Mary Stoddard Johnson 1.75 Heroes of the Desert ; Lives of Moffatt and Livingstone, and Sketches of Missionary Explorations in Africa, by the Author of Mary Powell's Diary 1.25 The Arabs and The Turks, their pas history and present condition, witi Special view to Mi.ssionary labor; among them. By Rev. Edson L Clark Grace Illustrated, or a Bouquet fron the Missionary Garden, by Mr. anc Mrs. C. IL Wheeler, llarpoot, Tuvkej Uncle Ben"s Bag, and How it is Neve' Empty. 26 pp Light on the Dark River .... Our Life in China. By Mrs. Nevius Africa's Mountain Valley .... Memoir of Henry Lyman .... The AVeaver Boy who became a Mis sionary (Dr. Livingstone) . . . Romance of Missions, or luside View; of Life and Labor in the Land c Ararat. By Miss JIaria A. West . The Land and the Book. By Dr. Thorn son • Social Life of the Chinese. By Rev J.Doolittle China and the Chinese. By Dr. Neviu South Africa, Missionary Travels an Researches in. By Rev. D. Living stone, LL.D Bible Lands: Their Modem Custom and Manners Illustrative of Scri{ ture. By Rev. Henry J. Van Lei nep, D. D. Cloth The Jliddle Kingdom. By S. Wei: Williams, LL. D The Cinnamon Isle Boy .... Tales about the Heathen .... Memoir of Henry Obookiah . . . IJartimeus The Night of Toil The White Foreigners from over tt Water Kardoo; or, the Hindoo Girl . . . Dr. Grant and the Mountain Nestoriai Twelve Years with the Children. B Rev. William Warren, D. D. . . These for Those : Our Indebtedness Missions ; or, What we Get for AV^h we Give. By Rev. W. AVarren, D. Forty Years in the Turki.sh Empin or Memoirs of Rev. William Goode) D. D., late Missionary of the A. B. F. M., at Constantinople. By t son-in-law, E. D. G. Prime, D. D. ;^PHIET BINDER : -_ Syrocuse, N. Y. IZZr Stockton, Cai;f. DATE DUE — -- a ^mmmrn^^.. y V HIGHSMITH #45 230 Printed In USA **i ■%»- ■'^ p. 111. rl.in Th 1 1012 01060 6830 ^^ Wi'^