|Reward.| Presently four natives were baptized, others came to inquire, and a church was built. When it was begun there were sixty members of the congregation; when it was completed there were three hundred. So thoroughly was the work of evangelization done, so well grounded were these degraded people in the faith, that in 1857 at the time of the great mutiny when the natives of India rose against the English the nine hundred adherents of the Gossner mission refused to give up that faith to which they had been baptized. Here is an extraordinary episode in missionary history. In 1845 the deepest degradation, misery and superstition, which included the worship of idols and demons and even the recollection of the sacrifice of living beings--in 1857 the most exalted Christian faith and courage.
From now on the mission prospered and its converts multiplied. Presently work was begun among the Hindus and Mohammedans in the Ganges Valley with a station at Ghazipur.
A visitor to Ranchi has written down some of his impressions of the chief station of the Gossner mission.
|Impressions of a Mission Station.| “In Ranchi I could have spent a month with the greatest delight, there is so much to see and to hear. There is a Christian hostel here on the mission premises, which seems to be a great power for good. It is a large square courtyard with open rooms all around, in which any Christians are allowed to put up who may be in from the district on business; they get their firewood free, and the only condition of admittance is that they attend morning and evening worship. Occasionally heathen people stop there too. The idea is a capital one, as it keeps the missionaries in touch with their native converts in a way which otherwise it would be very difficult to accomplish. We visited the printing press and the boys’ and girls’ schools. I was particularly struck by the bright little girls, who answered so intelligently when I questioned them, and whose part-singing was beautiful. The Kols are naturally musical, their ear being, as a rule, very good. The girls sang softly and sweetly; some of them even sang alone for me. They were being taught by a native who seemed to have a great deal of musical talent; he had just picked up a new thing himself--by ear, I suppose--and was putting it to notes for his girls.
“I was greatly struck by the practical work being done by these German missionaries. The children were being taught in an elementary and practical manner suitable to their village life. For instance, the girls were given a sum; one stated it on the blackboard, another worked it out in her head and gave the answer, and then both had a pair of scales and weights with some sand, and before the others they weighed out the amount which, according to the sum, they were entitled to. In the same practical way the girls were taught cooking and other things which would be useful to them as the wives of country villagers.
“I was taken to see the theological seminary and boys’ boarding school, and the fine church, where about eight hundred of the native congregation meet every Sunday for the worship of the true God; and yet we are told that missions are a failure!
“One very striking thing in the seminary was the singing class; I was amazed at the splendid way in which they rendered selections from Handel’s ‘Messiah’.”
|Purulia.| One of the chief enterprises of the Gossner Mission is its famous leper asylum at Purulia. The asylum was founded by Missionary Uffman in 1888, the immediate occasion being the driving of a number of poor lepers from their miserable huts. The missionary offered them a refuge in his compound and there relieved them as much as possible. From this small beginning has grown the largest and finest institution of its kind in India. There is a model village on a tract of fifty acres of evergreen woods, with sixty spacious houses, offices, dispensaries, a hospital, prayer rooms and a lofty Lutheran church. Four-fifths of the inhabitants are Christians. The medical treatment is that prescribed by the latest investigations of scientific men who have discovered the blessed fact that the prevention of leprosy for the children of lepers is possible and inexpensive.
|Hope in the Midst of Misery.| A visitor describes thus a Christmas celebration. “The lepers came marching out singing hymns and playing instruments. Some limp slowly, some blind ones are led by their comrades, some are carried. At last all are seated in the sunshine. There were knitted garments, mufflers, scrapbooks, toys, something for everybody, and how grateful they were! But when we saw the disfigured hands held out for the gifts, or little leper girls caressing their new dolls, our hearts were deeply touched, and we could hear those leper boys making music with their new instruments almost through the whole night.
“Hear this grateful letter from a leper saint. ‘Lady, Peace! your love-heart is so great that it reached this leper village--reached this very place. I being Guoi Aing, have received from you a bed’s wadded quilt. In coldest weather, covered at night, my body will have warmth, will have gladness. Alas, the wideness of the world prevents us seeing each other face to face, but wait until the last day, when with the Lord we meet together in heaven’s clouds--then what else can I utter but a whole-hearted mouthful of thanks? You will want to know what my body is like--there is no wellness in it. No feet, no hands, no sight, no feeling; outside body greatly distressed, but inside heart is greatest peace, for the inside heart has hopes. What hopes? Hopes of everlasting blessedness, because of God’s love and because of the Savior’s grace. These words are from Guoi Aing’s mouth. The honorable pencil-person is Dian Sister.’