INDIAN MISSION WORK

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 62, 22 June 1910, Page 3

INDIAN MISSION WORK

AN INTERESTING LECTURE. There was a good attendance at the Whiteley Hall on Monday night, when Rev. J. Takle, who is engaged in mission work, gave a lecture on the work done in India by the New Zealand Baptist Missionary Society. Rev. John Laird introduced the speaker, who dealt with his subject in very simple language, delivered in a quiet, incisive way, which impressed itself very forcibly on his hearers, who obtained an insight into the work missionaries are doing in India and the extreme difficulties they are laboring under. The lecture was illustrated by appropriate lantern slides. The speaker dwelt on the various phases of Indian life, iboth domestic and religious. He first of all took his audience through the villages and agricultural portions, showing how conservative the' natives were in retaining the primitive implements of their ancestors. He also i showed that as a people they were very religious. There were 210,000,000 Hindus, 60,000,000 Mahommedans, and 3,000,000 Christians. The Hindus worshipped innumerable gods of all descriptions and] had idols .scattered all over the country, and were extremely ignorant and superstitious as well as idolatrous. The Ma-, hommedans did not believe in idols, but were very religious in the worship of Mahomet. Seventy-five per cent, of the people in his district were Mahommedans. The Hindus were getting very dissatisfied and were turning to Mahommedism at the rate of 5,000,000 every ten years. It could thus be seen the extreme difficulty the Christian missionary nai, but he was pleased to say they were doing very good work. He then described the method in which the missionaries, iboth white and native, work among the children and also among the older natives, losing no opportunity of spreading the Gospel in bazaars, in the villages, in the fields, and, in fact, where ever there were any people to be spoken to. They were desirous of erecting a building where the university students, of which there were a large number in India, could be taught Christianity, and he asked for special donations towards this purpose. The hospital and dispensary work, school work, etc., were fully described. During an interval a collection was taken up in aid of the general mission fund. , . At the conclusion of the address the Rev. F. P. Kellow moved a vote of thanks to the lecturer for his pleasant and delightful entertainment. India was very interesting to us in the pre-«-nfc crisis, and he considered it the createst and trust placed in the hands or laid on the heart of the English.—Carried bv acclamation. A vote of thanks was also accorded Mr. F. N. Maunder for the loan and manipulation of,the lantern.