MISSION IN INDIA

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 89, 12 October 1934, Page 14

MISSION IN INDIA

CHRIST-LIKE WORK

BAPTIST CHURCH'S PROGRESS

"Our missionaries are nearer the heart of India than all the statesmen and merchants combined," said Dr. F. \V. Norwood,, of the City Temple, London, who recently; visited Wellington. Yesterday was "Missionary Day" of the New Zealand Baptist Assembly, now sitting in Wellington. The reports of,the missionary work in the Indian field were received and discussed. Describing the nature and extent of the work being done in India, the Nor* Zealand Baptist Missionary Society slates that there are at present on the staff sixteen European workers, the Rev. and Mrs. H. A. Jones, the Rev. and Mrs. B. N. Bade, Misses Beckingsalp, Cowles, Rice, Biadfield, Arnold, Livingston, OgilVie, Dr. Nola ivory, Bush, and Wise, and two recruits. Miss Eileen Coad and the Rev. M. J. Eade will join them this year. Associated with this band, is a staff of forty Indian workers wholly engaged in mission work and supported by the society.' This, brings the Indian staff up to fifty-six." '' Tho equipment and maintenance of this band of workers does not exhaust the society's responsibility in India. There arc several institutions doing noble Christ-like work, and most surely preparing the way for Christ to enter with Saving Grace, and power into the lives' of the people." STORY OP WOMEN MISSIONARIES. At the evening session Miss E. Beckingsale, who has been thirty-nine years engaged in mission work in India, gave an interesting address. The mission, said Miss Beckingsale, had been working there for nearly half a century. The population of the district was about a million and a half, and the New Zealand Baptist Mission had now 16 European and 40 Indian workers. There was a hospital in one district, and a ,dispensary and home for widows and children in the other. Miss Beckingsale said she opened the home for widows and children about eighteen years ago, and had been in charge ever since; in fact, she had been in charge of the dispensary ever since she joined the mission. The hospital at Chandpur was in charge of Dr. Nola Ivory, daughter of Mr. H. Ivory, of Wellington. •It was nearly fifty years since the work started there, remarked Miss Beckingsale. The people had had no contact with the outside world, and knew nothing about Christianity. In 1895 a railway was constructed through tho district; this brought the people a little more into contact with the outside world. In spite of the nationalist movement and Mohammedan fanaticism the mission advanced and made numbers of converts. Some people thought the mission converts were. rather low caste, but the mission held that even low caste natives were not to be despised. In the south of India there had been a great ingathering of "untouchables" to Christianity, and following the change in their lives the higher classes were now being brought into the Kingdom of God. "We look for that to happen in our district, as already our Christian converts are spreading the Gospel amongst' our own people, and as trained teachers and nurses are working amongst the higher classes their influence is sure to be felt," said Miss Beckingsale. Miss M. A. Bradfield, who recently returned from India after sixteen years' service, said that the common people in the district in which she worked hoard the Gospel gladly, but among higher people too there wore signs that they wore recognising the claims t of Christ.

After the addresses of the missionaries Miss Eileen Coad and the Rev. M. J. Eade were designated to their work in India, and the new missionaries, who will be accompanied by Miss A. L. Cou'lcs, made farewell speeches.