CHURCH WORK IN INDIA.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 2412, 24 December 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

CHURCH WORK IN INDIA.

Tint people of these colonics have at all times taken a keen interest in the affairs of our va-t Umpire in India, and besides using' their best endeavours to extend Mmir commercial and political intercourse with that country, arc always glad fn giin reliable information which will add’to their knowledge, of the social and moral progress of British rule in the Hast. The following portion of a very interesting address on mission work amongst Mtc Hindoos, delivered by Colonel Forbes, of Lake House, at a meeting of St. Peter’s Church Society, Hamilton. will, no doubt, prove attractive to our readers generally ; There are five dioceses in India and Rnnnah, under the Hishops of Calcutta, Madras. Bombay. Lahore and Rangoon. The Bishop of Calcutta is Metropolitan of India and Ceylon. To each diocese is appointed one archdeacon, and there are in all subordinate to these about 170 chaplains. These chaplains have charge of stations where British troops are cantoned, and are also required to visit once in three months a certain number (seldom exceedin'' three) of neighbouring out stations, the headquarters of purely civil districts. In civil stations where there are in addition to the civil officers of Covcrnment any considerable number of Europeans engaged in mercantile pursuits, and employes of the railways, a clergyman is appointed and sent nut hy the Additional Clergy Society, provided that the community guarantees a portion of such cleravman’s stipend. In civil stations whore there is no such clergyman divine service is ordinarily conducted once every Sunday by the chief magistrate of the district. Churches in stations where there arc British troops are built entirely at the cost of Government Elsewhere they are erected by Government, provided the residents contribute to defray one third of the cost. Government provides the furniture, and undertakes to keep the Church in proper repair. In most of the out stations in India churches have now been Imilt on them terms. In the presidency towns, and in a few of the largest cantonments there are Ministers of the Scotch Church who arc borne on the establishment as chaplains and paid by the Government. In otber planea Nonconformist, and Roman Catholic soldiers attend the Ministry of Missionaries of their respective denominations, and these Missionaries are allowed hy Government a small capitation grant for etch soldier attending service on Sunday. A glance, at the above facts will show, I think, how little calculated is such a system to foster and encourage any deep interest in Church administration on the part of the laity. It has often been said that if Government were really to do what they have, it is believed, contemplated. viz to dispense with their ecclesiastical establishment altogether, it would bo a very good thing for the Church in India, I entirely endorse this view from my own experience ; and though at the outset our Church might appear in a feeble minority, I am persuaded that in a very few years it would grow into a far stronger and more healthy plant than it is at present, both as regards clergy and laity. Nay, I go further and unhesitatingly assert that such a change would prove to be a most powerful auxiliary enterprise in that vast country. The evils which to my mind are prominently prejudicial to the Church in India, under the present system, are (1) laxity, carelessness or indifference, as the case may he, on the part of too many of the chaplains, and (2) apathy on the part of the laity. The position of the Indian chaplain tends to foster these evils. His circumstances are too easy, if I may so say, and his prospects too assured from the outset. He comes out to India, say at the age of 2-t, in priest’s orders, and at onoo receives a salary of 500 rupees a month. At tiro end of ton years he becomes a senior chaplain, and his salary is raised to 800 rupees a month, which, when I first went to India, was equivalent to £IOOO a year. The value of the rupee lias, however, considerablyfallen since then. After seven years in this grade, or at the age of 41. the chaplain can retire on apensionof P305 per annum, an 1, being still in the prime of li r e. can go homo and obtain preferment. The majority of the laity in India, consists of men in th ■ service of the Government, who are only too apt to regard the chaplain under those circumstances as merely a colleague in another department. There are, of course, noble examples amongst the chaplains in India. Men whose rare devotion and zeal in God’s cause, ’in the cholera camp, on the battle-field, and at all times, have earned for them a neverdying name, and those are men of whom our Church may well be proud. And now, what is the effect of the evils I have described on the people of the country, and on the missionary cause ? The proportion of Europeans to natives in India, is about 1 to 2000 ; and it has been most truly asserted both that no people arc moro observant than the natives of India, and that it is impossible for a European in that country to lead a life of strict seclusion. The natives are themselves most self-denying and punctilious in all that concerns their own religions. In what light then can they regard Christianity, which its professions treat with so much indifference, and which appears to be so little binding on their conscinnoics? And how paralyzing is such indifference to the efforts of the Missionary ; and how withering is its effect on the spread of the gospel ! Far bettor wore it open opposition. And now let ns turn to the progress of the Church amongst the vast native population of our Indian Empire. That population numbers over 250 millions of souls, and embraces a variety ot creeds and sects, the Hindus largely preponderating. To occupy this vast field there are at present only about GOO Missionaries, of whom about one half, I believe, have been sent out by onr Church. It has often been cast in the teeth of the Missionary in India that he ia making hut a poor business of it, and that very small results are apparent from the time, labour and money which have been expanded on the cause. But I doubt very much, whatever the fanatical bigotry of the Mahomedam, or the polytheism, caste prejudices, and deeply imbued superstition of the Hindu have proved so serious an obstacle to the Missionary’s work, as the godlessness and apathy of so many of his fellow Christians in the country. Of recent years, however, the fruits of Missionary effort have decidedly been more encouraging, and this fact may be attributed, under the blessing of God, to the following causes : 1. The spread of education. 2. The gradual breaking down of caste barriers by the railway, and hy increased facilities for communication with the West. 3. By the establishment of the Zenana Mission. The Zenana Mission is a Mission to the women of India, and was inaugurated some few years ago by a body of earnest and thoughtful Christians in connection with the Church Missionary Society. To arrive at the understanding of the great importance of this movement it is necessary to explain as briefly as possible tho position of the women of India. They may bo visibly divided into two classes; tho upper and lower. Women of the lower class are mere drudges, and are regarded hv their lords and masters as in much tho same category as his pony or his bullock. Unlike their sisters in the West, they have no will of their own, and their intelligence is of tho very lowest order. They may porhans be best described as mere human machines, to cook and to look after their husband's creature comforts, to fetch and carry, and to toil in tho fields. The women of tho upper class, on tho other hand, though far the

most part no better educated, arc kept in strict seclusion from their birth, and no man, but a near relation, may overlook upon them. They are not treated like animaU, but have such comforts and attendance as their hu-hands can afford. They arc docked out with jewels, which, however, they can never display outside their prison homes. Their opinions carry groat weight in tho family councils. During the mutiny the action of the rebel leaders was moro than once traced by tho judgment of the Zenana. These women have solo charge of their children, and buys do not usually leave the Zenanna until 12 yeare of age, and even later. What more congenial soil for bigotry and superstition can he conceived than this atmosphere of the Zenana, which is imbibed by the youth of the country from their earliest infancy, and which so strenuously opposes the progress of civilisation and Christianity. To educate and convert these “ purdah wasliin," or secluded women, are the objects of tho Zenana Mission, which has now agents in the persons of welleducated and trained ladies in most of tho principal cities and towns of India, whose reports yearly testify to the excellent work they are achieving.