Robert Caldwell

“ If we look around us, and scrutinize the condition of even the best-managed and most enlightened parishes in England, we shall discover in them a mixture of good and evil; we shall find the best portion of every community the smallest. If we look into the description of the spiritual condition of the primitive Churches given us in the New Testament, we shall discover even in them a very mixed state of things chaff mingled with wheat in the Gospel thrashing- floor, bad fish mingled with good in the Gospel net ”

“ We may arrive at a safe conclusion respecting the reality and sincerity, on the whole, of the Christianity of Tinnevelly, from the liberality with which the native converts contribute to religious and charitable purposes. This is everywhere a tolerably fair criterion, if not of piety towards God, at least of love to man and religious zeal. People will not give their money for the ex tension of a system in which they do not believe, or in which they take no interest. ”

“ It is well known that many of the tribes of Northern Europe were converted to Christianity by the sword, or by other methods not more creditable to any party concerned in the conversion, and that the Christianity thus introduced was deeply tinged with the superstitions and errors of the times ; yet in a few centuries the Christian leaven wrought so mightily as to purify itself from the impurities and corruptions which had originally been combined with it, and to form in the northern nations a manliness and truthfulness of Christian character, previously unknown in the world. ”

“ On the whole, therefore, I conclude, from my own experience as well as from the experience of my Missionary brethren in Tinnevelly, that real piety towards God does exist amongst our people, and is the same in kind, if not in degree, with what we observe in more highly-favoured communities. We cannot expect Hindu piety to be identical in all respects with English piety, but we may expect, and we actually find, that Hindti piety is as sincere and real, after its own fashion, as English, and as much superior to the merely nominal religion by which it is sur rounded. ”

“ It is a common saying amongst the English in India, that Christian servants are worse than heathen ones ; and though I regard this assertion as false and calumnious, yet I admit that the character of persons of that class is often unfavourably affected by their position. Tried by any standard whatever, the character of the Christian members of any caste will more than bear a comparison with heathens belonging to the same caste, but if persons belonging to different castes or classes are compared, the comparison is unfair. ”

“ The Christian women are more decently attired, and more intelligent-looking than their heathen sisters ; and instead of hiding themselves on the approach of an European stranger, they come out and give him, as he passes, the Christian salutation.
In every case with which I am acquainted, villages which have held fast and valued the Christianity they received, have risen, sometimes in the first generation, always in the second, to the enjoyment of greater prosperity and comfort, and to a higher position in the social scale, than any heathen village of the same caste. ”

“ In the history of our Christian communities in Tinnevelly this putting away of idols and washing of the garments have always gone hand in hand, so that, though there may be room for improvement still, the external appearance of our people, especially when assembled in church, is so much more respectable than that of their heathen neighbours, they are so much cleaner and brighter-looking, that they would inevitably be supposed by a stranger to be of higher caste than they are. ”

“ This is a rule on which we may place special reliance in India, for the Hindus are notoriously a penurious, hoarding people : generally a Hindu is as reluctant to give his money as he is to shed his blood ; and one scarcely ever hears of a debt being paid before the payment of it is enforced. ”

“ Thus, those poor people walked in all twenty-two miles that day, and swam a river twice, in order to enable them to attend the meeting! Making all due allowance for difference in climate and in mode of life, I think I may fairly say that the practical interest those poor Hindu rustics took in the propagation of Christian truth, though not directly a proof of their piety, was at least a proof that in them the good seed had found a good promising soil, in which fruits of faith and labours of love were likely to grow apace. ”

“ A missionary station is not depicted in colours taken from daily life, but is fancied to be a sort of Garden of Eden a chosen spot of consecrated ground in which there is no ignorance, no super stition, no strife, no immorality I had almost said, no human nature. ”

“ A man with an income of ten shillings a week is regarded as a gentleman ; but I was not fortunate enough to have any such gentlemen in my congregations. All my own people belonged to the class of small very small farmers, hired palmyra-climbers, and farm-servants, or slaves ; and though most of the farmers were owners of the lands they cultivated, I do not think there was a single native Christian in the district, whose income averaged more than five shillings a week.
It is necessary to bear these things in mind, in forming an estimate of the liberality of our native Christians. ”

“ We should form, it is true, an erroneous impression of the religious prosperity of Tinnevelly if we looked at these facts from a purely English point of view. The Hindus, and other semi- civilized races, have so much less mental independence and self- reliance than the English, and when disposed to act right are so much more teachable, tractable, and submissive, that a pastor's recommendation carries greater weight, and his influence produces greater effect than is ordinarily the case in English congregations. ”

“ When we speak of nominal Christianity in Tinnevelly, we speak of something which has a certain right to the Christian name. Our nominal Christians come to church, they send their children to school, they have abandoned their idols, they have formally placed themselves under Christian instruction, and under our pastoral care ; they have come within the sound of the Gospel, and within the range of holy influences ; they contribute to the funds of our various Societies ; they submit to a discipline in a remark ably docile manner ”

“ It is admitted that Christian profession and Scriptural knowledge, docility and liberality, though excellent things after their kind, may fall ahort of spiritual life. It is desirable, therefore, to inquire whether, and to what extent, our native Christian community in Tinnevelly has been endowed with spiritual life from on high. Amongst our native Christians such spiritual life as operates mightily in " works of faith, and labours of love, and patience of hope," is certainly rare and I fear, it must be added, it is rare in this country too. ”

“ The progress of the Christian community will be very satisfac tory, if each generation gets as far ahead of the previous one as the rising generation has already outstripped the past. We cannot expect in a single generation all the results, whether temporal or spiritual, which we aim at. We have learnt that God "visits the iniquities of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation." ”

“ The work of Misions in Thmevelly is a real work, with real difficulties and real encouragements, and it only claims to be judged by the principles on which every similar work is estimated in Christian countries.
In endeavouring to form a fair estimate of the results which have really been accomplished, we are sometimes met at the outset by the statement that all our native Christians belong to low and degraded castes. The great majority of Hindu converts belong undoubtedly to the lower classes of society : in the country they are small farmers and farm labourers, not unfrequently slaves ”

“ Christians merely, it is because we have not seen in them what we have longed to see " the power of godliness," the new life of real, spiritual Christianity and find it necessary to distinguish them from that much smaller, but much more interesting class of native Christians, who show that they are animated by the spirit of Christ. ”

“ On the other hand, the value of money is much greater in India than in England. As estimated by the average price of rice in India, compared with the average price of wheat in England, I reckon the value of money in India to be seven to one six to one perhaps in some districts, at least seven to one in Tinnevelly : that is, one pound will purchase seven pounds' worth of food ; consequently, a donation of one pound to a Tinnevelly Society must be reckoned as one of seven pounds. ”

“ It may seem a low view of matters to say that it is a character istic of Christianity that it teaches people to be cleanly ; and yet, if it be true, as is proverbially said, that " cleanliness is next to godliness," it is a circumstance worth mentioning, that an in creased attention to cleanliness has invariably accompanied the reception of the Gospel in Tinnevelly. The higher classes of the Hindus have always been very cleanly, for daily ablutions are a part of their religion ”

“ They are content to remain profoundly ignorant of what Missionaries are doing, and of the real condition of the native Christian community. They adopt the language which passes current in "society," and English society in India is thoroughly pervaded with the notion that every race should keep to its own creed, and that it is an ungentlemanly thing for a man to change his religion. This is a notion which high-caste heathens take much care to encourage. Their own religion makes no pro selytes, and accepts none ”

“ The fact is, that the work of God in heathen lands does not differ essentially from the same work at home. In Tinnevelly as in England good has to struggle with evil, truth with error, light with darkness : nowhere on earth shall we find the characteristics of heaven. They are in error who dwell upon the dark side of the picture, and ignore the bright side ”

“ In Tinnevelly religious and charitable Societies have been es tablished in each of our districts for almost every purpose we wish to accomplish ; and those Societies depend for support, not upon Europeans, for there are no Europeans resident in the rural districts, but upon the native Christians themselves. In my own district, for instance, I had a Church Building Society, and a Society for the Relief of the Christian poor, both independent of other districts, besides an Association connected with the Tinne velly Tract and Book Society, and one connected with the Bible Society ”

“ By food, I under stand, of course, such food as is necessary to natives of the place, whose constitutions are adapted to the climate. Some things are regarded as necessaries of life by Europeans, which most Hindus have not yet learnt to regard even as luxuries. ”

“ In this country missionary labours and successes are some times exposed to the opposite danger of being over-estimated. It sometimes seems to be supposed that all our converts must have been converted not only from idolatry to Christianity, but from sin to God ”

“ In estimating the value of facts like this, differences in mental temperament are certainly to betaken into account; nevertheless, we should not be doing justice to our Missions if we did not attribute a considerable share of the difference to the system pursued. Our people may be more docile than the English, but our system also is better. ”

“ When a person learns, on first becoming acquainted with Tin- nevelly, that the greater number of the native converts em braced the Christian religion either from secular motives, or from a mixture of motives, partly secular, partly religious, and when he notices the imperfections and faults which are apparent in the majority, he may conclude as some have naturally, but too hastily concluded, that all the religion of the province is unreal. ”

“ Instead, therefore, of that morbid dread of the extension of nominal Christianity which some good people evince, it should simply be our desire and prayer that "the power of godliness" may become co-extensive with the "form" of it, and that the "dry bones" of heathenism may not only be clothed with sinews, and flesh, and skin, but vivified and raised up by the Divine " breath. ' It is greatly to be deplored that any persons, whether Europeans or Hindus, should remain content with the empty form, without the substance of godliness ”

“ They owe these signs of superiority to the education they have received, for they have been brought up from the beginning in Christian knowledge and Christian habits, whereas most of the older people whom you see sitting behind, were converted from heathenism late in life, and have rarely lost the stains and rust of their original condition. ”

“ The Gospel does not all at once eradicate natural disposition and national failings. Our Indian converts, though they have become Christians, have not become Englishmen ; they remain Hindus still, and that means much. ”

“ If it is to be regretted that the majority of our native Chris tians belong to the lower circle of castes, it is for a reason that lies deeper than anything yet mentioned.
If a man gives up anything for Christ, he receives from Christ sevenfold more in spiritual gifts and graces; he rises rapidly to the stature of a perfect man in Christ. ”

“ One portion falls by the wayside, and is trodden under foot ; another portion falls on a good, but a shallow soil, and though it springs up speedily, it speedily whithers away ; a third portion is choked with thorns ; a fourth portion alone finds a good soil, the soil of " a good and honest heart," a heart specially prepared by Divine grace for the reception of the good seed, and it is in that soil alone that the good seed not only takes root, but grows, and brings forth fruit " in some sixty, and in some an hundred-fold." ”

“ It used to be said, that it was impossible to convert the Hindus, and they who said so, the Anglo-Indians of a former gene ration, did their best to fulfil their own prophecy by preventing Missionaries from labouring in India. Now that the possibility of the conversion of the Hindus has been proved by the conver sion of a considerable number of them, of almost every caste, the point of attack has been changed, and it is asserted that there are no sincere Christians amongst the Hindus, so that the conversions that take place from time to time are of no value. ”